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Old September 28, 2016   #80
PureHarvest
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Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b
Posts: 1,369
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Raiquee,
You don't have to have turned a farm income yet to apply.

You have to have records established with FSA (USDA Farm Service Agency) to apply for NRCS grants. What is your property/land situation?
If has never been farmed, you can get a Farm and Tract number assigned to your land, and it does not have to be zoned as Ag.

Then, you would apply with NRCS as a beginning farmer and apply for the High Tunnel program. While you do not have to have been in income producing crops yet, you do have to have what's called a resource concern.
The resource concern that the HT solves is "degraded plant condition". The HT would help solve that problem due to climate and moisture modification. So, you would at least need a current or previous crop on that site that you could show that could have benefited from the protection of a HT. A planner would come out and see your current garden, the residue of your last crop if it was fall or winter, or look at photos you would provide along with a site visit so they could show the need to assist you in protect your next crop.
That's at least how it would roll in my county. And I don't think this scenario has ever happened, but that is how we would handle it. All the new farmer's I've seen come in to apply are acquiring control or ownership of land that was already established as a Farm with FSA somewhere along the way. But that does not preclude someone with a 1 acre lot in a residential area (with no restrictions) from being assigned a farm number and applying for an NRCS program.

Last edited by PureHarvest; September 28, 2016 at 01:41 PM.
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