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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.
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.
- Eligibility Criteria
- Application Information & Required Documents
- Help & Contact Information
- 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.
Applicants will complete an online application and will provide:
- information for the farm/business operation(s) including location(s), structure, income source and fertilizer expense(s);
- copies of IRS forms 1040 and Schedule F for calendar years 2020 and 2021 for the farm business(es);
- copies of the invoice(s) for fertilizer purchased for use on the crops being grown in calendar year 2022;
- basic demographic information about the farm/business operation; and
- ACH vendor enrollment information for electronic payment by Frederick County of any award under this program.
Awardees will certify to certain grant agreement conditions with the County during the application process. The grant agreement conditions will outline the terms of the award, and includes the requirement that awardees retain all grant documentation on spending for a period of five (5) years and agree to a County, State and/or Federal audit if required.
While financial information will be kept confidential, the names of businesses receiving grants, and the amount they receive, are public information and may be included in press releases issued by the County and may be subject to Public Information Act requests. It is possible that emergency grant funds may be reported as taxable income. Recipient of this grant award will receive a form 1099-G from Frederick County Government. Frederick County Government cannot provide tax advice and recommends that any recipient or sub-recipient consult with a tax professional.
Questions about the Farmer Relief grant program may directed to Jaclyn Bryant with the Office of Economic Development at 301.600.1053 or jbryant@FrederickCountyMD.gov.
The online grant portal may be accessed at: Logon Page - Grant Lifecycle Manager (grantinterface.com). It’s recommended that you bookmark this page in your internet browser for ease of access.
The Farmer Relief grant program will open June 15, 2022, and applications will close at 11:59 p.m. on July 15, 2022.
Organizations that do not have an account within the grant system will need to set that up first, by clicking "Create New Account" on the portal home page. There are resources in the following link that will provide step-by-step instructions on the grantmaking system: APPLICANT HELP Scroll to Site Access and Account Creation for help on how to create a new account.