Farmer & Rancher Disaster Resilience Grant Program
Funding for this grant program was not renewed during the 2025 Oregon Legislative Session and there will not be a third funding round in late 2025/early 2026. We will post updates here if funding becomes available for this program.
During the 2023 Oregon Legislative Session, $2.65 million was allocated to the Oregon Community Food Systems Network (OCFSN) for the Farmer & Rancher Disaster Resilience Grant Program. This essential and nationally unique funding will support Oregon’s small and underserved producers to be more resilient to climate impacts such as heat, smoke and drought.
In 2024, Round One of this Grant Program awarded $1.6 million to 114 small farms and ranches across Oregon (impact report at the bottom of this page). In Round Two, $900,000 is available for applications from farms and ranches who were not awarded in Round One or who have not previously applied.
This Farmer & Rancher Disaster Resilience Grant Program builds on the successful OCFSN 2022 Farmer and Rancher Disaster Relief Program. This page will be the primary resource for all details on the Grant Program including the Grant Program Guidelines and Request for Proposals.
With guidance from farmers, a diverse group of network members, farmer supporting organizations and OSU extension experts, this program will quickly and fairly distribute these funds to producers across the state to build more on-farm resilience.
Funding from these grants is for on-farm disaster resilience projects and plans.
Project categories include:
Irrigation and Water Efficiency
Shading and Cooling
Soil Health Management
Crop Management
Ecosystem Management
Equipment Purchase, Rental or Refurbishment
On-Farm Planning, Monitoring, and Research
For this grant program, small farm disaster resilience is defined as the farm or ranch’s ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to natural disasters.
Through proposed and funded projects, the farm or ranch will have enhanced resilience allowing better anticipation of disasters and better planning to reduce disaster losses—rather than waiting for an event to occur and paying for it afterward. This grant is for projects to improve natural disaster resilience, not for ongoing operating or program expenses or equipment. Even though increasing farm viability will increase farm resilience to natural disasters this is a project based grant and can’t go towards ongoing payments or day-to-day operations. Natural disasters for this grant include impacts from heat, drought, fire, smoke, flooding, extreme weather and other climate related disasters.
For all questions about this grant contact: grants@ocfsn.org
