On Wednesday, June 29, the Rural Business-Cooperative Service of USDA announced that its  Small, Socially Disadvantaged Producer Grant Program (formerly known as the Small, Minority Producer Grant Program) will be open for applications until the deadline of August 15, 2011.  The full Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) appears in the June 29 edition of the Federal Register.

This competitive grants program will make awards up to $200,000 to cooperatives or associations of cooperatives for one-year projects that provide technical assistance to small, socially-disadvantaged producers in rural areas.  In total, $3.456 million is available.

The deadline for applications is August 15, 2011.  Applications may be mailed in paper form or submitted electronically through the federal government’s grants.gov portal (2011 application is not yet available online).  The announcement of awards selection is expected to occur around September 15, 2011.

Read about past SSDPG recipients from 2008 and 2009.

Find out more from the SSDPG program’s web site, get the 2010 SSDPG Application Guide, or contact your state Rural Development Office.