Overview
AIP provides business planning and technical assistance to farms with land that has already been protected through MDAR’s Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) Program.
The program assists with issues of financial viability, resource conservation, family succession, modernization of infrastructure and other issues that may enhance the long term continued use of the agricultural resource. Grant funds of $25,000 - $100,000 may be available on a reimbursement basis to participants for capital infrastructure improvements on the farm identified through the planning process including resource management, new or improved barns, farmstands or other agricultural buildings, or processing facilities.
Eligible Applicants
To be eligible for participation in the Program, Responders must meet all of the following eligibility requirements:
- Responder(s) must own, or be a Co-Responder with the owner of, an Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) farm that was protected through Department funds on or before December 31, 2015.
- Responders must be in compliance with the APR program and Department rules and regulations.
- Responder(s) must own, or operate through a written agreement, an APR farm that is currently in active agricultural use and has been managed as a commercial agricultural enterprise by the Responder or Co-Responder for at least the three (3) previous years.
- All Responders, including landowners and farm business owners, must sign this application.
Details
The application deadline has now passed to apply to participate in this program in Fiscal Year 2020. The next open application period is expected to be in the spring of 2020, depending on available funding.