MOSCOW, Idaho — The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released a $59 million grant for a University of Idaho (U of I) program that encourages farmers to adopt "creative marketing strategies and resilient production practices."
The U of I reports that its Innovative Agriculture and Marketing Partnership (IAMP) is now completely funded after a yearlong pause ordered by the USDA.
IAMP, which was approved in 2024 as part of the USDA's Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative, included over 200 Idaho farmers across 34 counties.
However, in April of 2025, the USDA canceled the funding after certain criteria changes were adopted by federal officials. The University of Idaho claims those changes were made to promote "new market opportunities and increase the minimum percentage of funding awarded to farmers from half to 65% of the total."
The University goes on to explain that the government shutdown further prolonged that revision process. Officials say they will first re-engage with original participants in the program before accepting new applicants.
"The IAMP team, led by Erin Brooks, a professor in the Department of Soil and Water Systems, and Doug Finkelnburg, area Extension educator in cropping systems, plans to reengage with the original pool of growers before potentially accepting applications for new acres." - University of Idaho
“We are going to get a technical support team to help us enroll these people, and we’re streamlining the process so it’s fairly straightforward and automated,” Finkelnburg said. “Our hope is to get producers under contract in 2026 as quickly as we can.”
The newly reconfigured IAMP will now distribute $3.5 million in direct payments to farmers who want to test new markets by selling crops that were raised using "regenerative practices." There is also a $450,000 fund that will be designated for groups of growers and businesses to implement marketing projects at scale.
Furthermore, IAMP is set to hire a marketing specialist and three financial experts to evaluate those outcomes. Five graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher will also be paid to help implement the grant.
Some of the sponsored farming practices eligible for IAMP funds include "reduced tillage, cover cropping, prescribed grazing, intercropping, reducing use of synthetic fertilizers in favor of organic nutrient sources, and biochar use."
“For a producer, this is an excellent opportunity to try things that you haven’t tried before, that are high risk but potentially high reward,” Brooks said. “From the industry perspective, they’re looking at stewardship, and they’re looking at producing healthier foods from healthy soils. The markets want to know more information about this, and the more we can provide tangible data and research that gives confident numbers on the impacts of these adopted practices, the better off we are.”
“The practices we’re incentivizing will help make the farms more resilient to risk,” added Finkelnburg. “We’re incentivizing practices that build soil carbon, increase water storage in soils, and make it less risky to do production agriculture.”
The Nature Conservancy, Desert Mountain Grass-Fed Beef, and the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) and Schitsu’umsh (Coeur d’Alene) tribes are IAMP partners.
