Farmer Relief

Growing resources for Frederick County farmers to thrive!

Frederick County maintains a strong commitment to supporting local farmers and agriculture crop producers that provide invaluable products and services to our community and beyond. In continued work of mitigating the impact of COVID-19, Frederick County is investing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding in its local farming and agriculture crop-producing community.  


Brookfield Farms

Program Overview

The Frederick County ARPA Farmer Relief grant program will allocate approximately $2,400,000 in funding to provide awards to eligible farmers and agriculture crop producers impacted by the steep increases in input costs brought on by the COVID-19 public health emergency and its negative economic impact.  

The on-going pandemic has caused severe supply chain issues in the farm and agriculture crop-producing areas of our community causing significant price increases on necessary input costs and ever-increasing price pressures on the production of locally grown crops.  To help off-set these skyrocketing input costs and offer some relief to our local crop-growers, Frederick County, through the ARPA Farmer Relief grant program, will be providing an estimated $20 per fertilized and harvestable acre. 

The ARPA Farmer Relief application includes a number of questions surrounding the farm or agriculture producing entity’s crop growing operations, and financial information about input  expenses, etc. 

The tabs below provide more detail about the eligibility criteria and the application requirements.

Award Amounts

The grant awards for the ARPA Farmer Relief grant program will be an estimated $20 per acre on the total verified number of harvestable and fertilized acres a local farm or agriculture producer grows in calendar year 2022.  

Grant Period

Input costs, such as fertilizer, had to be purchased no earlier than January 1, 2022 and be used in a calendar year 2022 growing season.

Application Timeline

The County anticipates the following schedule for reviewing submitted applications and determining funding awards:

June 9, 2022              County Executive announcement of ARPA Farmer Relief grant program

June 15, 2022            Release of ARPA Farmer Relief grant program application 

July 15, 2022             Deadline for ARPA Farmer Relief grant program application submission at 11:59 p.m.

Summer 2022            ARPA Farmer Relief grant program application reviews and release of funding

This project is being supported, in whole, by Federal award number SLFRP1623 awarded to Frederick County, Maryland by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

  1. Eligibility Criteria
  2. Application Information & Required Documents 
  3. Help & Contact Information
  4. Grant Application Portal 

A farm or agriculture crop producer is eligible for an award if:

  • the owned or rented crop-growing land has a physical location/address in Frederick County, Maryland;
  • is in good standing with the Internal Revenue Service, the State of Maryland, and Frederick County Government (by self-attestation);
  • is in compliance with Federal, State and Local human rights laws (by self-attestation);
  • has earned the majority of its gross income (51% or greater) from farming over at least the past two years; 
  • will allow Frederick County to work with the Frederick County Farm Service Agency to obtain necessary harvestable acreage information;
  • as of January 1, 2022, has purchased fertilizer to be used on the crops being grown in calendar year 2022; and
  • has already or anticipates planting crops in calendar year 2022.

Please note, certain crops (i.e., hay) are not planted every year, but require input costs, such as fertilizer, to grow.  This would be eligible for an award as well.