Announced in 2025, the Massachusetts Farmland Partnership Program (MFPP) is a new grant program to help implement the Massachusetts Farmland Action Plan (MFAP) at the local, regional and statewide level.
The goal of the program is to build networks of Partners who work together collaboratively and in coordination to protect farmland, enhance farm viability, and ensure access to farmland.
This will be achieved by providing funding to eligible partners to work with farmers, farmland owners, agricultural service providers, municipalities and others to protect farmland, enhance farm viability, and ensure access to farmland, as well as coordinate and collaborate between partners as a cohort.
Farmland Partnership Projects
In December 2025 MDAR announced the awarding of $1.9 million in Massachusetts Farmland Partnership Program Grants to seven groups of organizations across the Commonwealth. The grants, which are funded by MDAR, seek to implement 29 projects that align with tasks of the Massachusetts Farmland Action Plan (MFAP). The 12/18 Press Release shares more about the grant awards.
Program Overview and Project Factsheets
MDAR has created a brief summary of the recent grant awards which include a Project Factsheet for each of the 29 projects. A searchable table of all awarded projects is also available.
- FPP Program Overview and Project Factsheets (Last updated 12/15/2025)
- FPP Project Table – searchable spreadsheet and PDF (Last updated 12/15/2025)
Additional details about projects will be released in the coming months as they get started – with updates made to the factsheets and announcements made in the MFAP newsletter.
If you have questions, please contact the Program Manager – Katharine Otto. Katharine.s.otto@mass.gov
Meetings and Events
On Thursday, January 15, 2025 at noon, MDAR is hosting a webinar to share more about the 2025 Progress Report and Farmland Partnership Program Grants that were announced in December 2025, with a short time for Q&A. This webinar is oriented towards all partners, potential partners and people who are interested in the implementation of the MFAP.
Sign up for updates
The Farmland Partnership Program is one element of implementation of the Farmland Action Plan. Click here to sign up for the Farmland Action Plan newsletter, which will include some additional emails related to the Farmland Partnership Program, funded projects as well as other related work. Previous MFAP newsletters are posted on the MFAP webpage.
Applying for Farmland Partnership Grants
The following is information about Round 1 of Farmland Partnership Grants. The deadline for applications was May 19, 2025. Information about the awards is found above.
The following information was shared during the FY2026 RFR Round and is published for information only.
The Request for Response (RFR) provides a comprehensive summary of grant evaluation criteria, review timelines, award recipient expectations, eligible uses of grant funds, and examples of projects.
- View the RFR in COMMBUYS which includes 4 file attachments.
All proposed activities must be clearly tied to a specific task(s) in the Farmland Action Plan Implementation Matrix. The proposed activity cannot just be inspired by a strategy or action – it must be aligned with a specific task, which includes following the intent of the specific action and strategy under which the task is listed.
The following documents are important to review alongside the RFR:
There were two webinars which covered different content.
- Webinar 1 – Presentation slides, video, Q&A responses (see below)
- Webinar 2 – Presentation slides, video, Q&A responses (see below)
There were two rounds of questions for potential applicants:
- Round 1 Questions and Answers Document - Published 3/27/2025
- Round 2.1 Questions and Answers Document - Published 3/28/2025
- Round 2.2 Questions and Answers Document - Published 4/25/2025