Grant Writing Tips for Farmers

Author: Stacey Stearns and Jiff Martin
Sharon.Gray@uconn.edu

Reviewer: Cyrena Thibodeau, Connecticut Department of Agriculture and Murray Gates, Connecticut Small Business Development Center
Publication EXT096 | September 2025

DOI Pending

Introduction

Money from grants can be instrumental for business expansion, if received at the right time, and for the right project.  

Farmers might consider the use of grants to leverage current resources, invest in key infrastructure improvements, or move a project to the next level. Grant funds are most often used for one-time capital expenses, such as improvements to buildings, purchase of equipment, or conducting field improvements. In some cases, grants may be used to pay for professional training (for example, attending a conference) or paying for agriculture consultants and services (such as field preparation or accounting).  

Most grants prohibit the use of funds to purchase land or buildings. Grantors often expect farms to contribute their own time, labor, and possibly matching funds, to the project.  

As is the case with most business sectors, grants to farmers represent an important stimulus opportunity for growth and expansion. It’s certainly possible to grow a farm business without grant support, but the additional funds can help a lot with growth opportunities. 

This fact sheet provides farmers with grant writing tips to help improve their rate of success accessing grants. 

 

Key Concepts 

  • USDA, the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, and certain non-profits and private foundations have funding opportunities designed specifically for the agriculture sector. Funding opportunities are constantly evolving as new issues, priorities, and science updates are explored.  

 

Reviewing recently funded grants can generate key insights on the types of projects different funders are seeking. These can often be found via their websites. 

  • Grant opportunities are announced through a ‘Request for Proposals’ or ‘Request for Applications’. 
  • Grant opportunities have firm deadlines for submission of proposals. If you miss the deadline, your proposal will need to wait for the next funding cycle or opportunity. Grant applications are not automatically placed in the next cycle; check with individual funding organizations. 
  • Most funders provide an informational webinar (which are usually recorded) about the funding opportunity, along with question-and-answer sessions. These webinars help clarify the types of projects the funder is looking for, and can shed light as to who else might be applying. 
  • A grant is a contract. If your proposal is selected for funding, you will need to sign a contract with the funder before starting. As a grant recipient, this contract obligates you to do the work outlined in your proposal. There will be administrative tasks required by the grantor that will need to be fulfilled. 
  • Grant projects have a fixed start and end date.  
  • A grant is tied to an approved budget, with specific cost categories. The grant amount will not increase, even if the project ends up costing more than expected.  

 

The grant contract will specify the terms for receiving grant funds, as well as whether you will need to submit invoices and receipts showing expenditures that match your submitted budget. 

  • Grantors will have certain deliverables they expect from you, with deadlines for completion.  
  • Although there is no obligation to repay a grant, all grant awards over $600 are considered taxable income. It’s important to plan accordingly when you are preparing your income taxes.  

 

In most cases, the grantor will file a1099 form with the IRS and provide a copy to you, the grant recipient. You will use the 1099 form to report the grant you received as income when you file your own income taxes for the year in which you received the grant. 

  • Many grants for agricultural producers have a reimbursement model, meaning the farmer does all the work outlined in the grant application, and is then reimbursed for the grant award amount at the end of the project. 
  • Sometimes grants are awarded along with free technical assistance, where farms are offered free consulting and coaching from an agricultural expert, in addition to the grant funds. 

 

Grant Writing Tips

Organizational skills make the grant writing process easier. Each opportunity has a unique set of guidelines and requirements for submission. It’s vital that you follow the instructions carefully, assembling and submitting all required documents, along with a clearly written proposal.  

While funders always have more proposals than funding available, submitting a strong proposal, with a compelling narrative outlining the issue and need for the work, and well-organized supporting documents, helps make an application more competitive.  

Create a checklist of all grant submission requirements. If you fail to submit required documents, your grant application will not be reviewed or considered for funding.  

The following grant writing tips are used by grant writers across industries. Grant writing, like many practices, will become easier when you spend more time working on it. 

 

Start Early

Give yourself plenty of time; grant writing can take hours, and we recommend blocking off protected time to work on the grant application. Consider working on the grant application with another team member, whether it's an employee or family member; sharing responsibility for the grant application makes it easier to fit into an already full schedule.  

 

Carefully Read the Request for Proposals

After reading the Request For Proposal (RFP) for the first time, re-read it and take notes. You really want to understand the request and purpose behind the grant program, and who it’s intended for. Each grant opportunity has a specific intent and target audience, so it’s important to match your project to the right grant opportunity.  

Ask yourself:  

  • Why does this grant exist?  
  • What does the grantor hope to accomplish by making these grant investments in farmers?  

Before starting, make sure you have a clear idea of how your project fulfills the purpose of the grant program. Aligning your project to the grant purpose will save you time and make it a more viable application.  

Do not let the funding opportunity change your business model design and threaten your viability. Be clear about what projects and expenditures are allowed or disallowed in the RFP. For example, livestock fencing for pasture management might be allowed, but fencing for deer exclusion could be disallowed. 

After reading the RFP thoroughly, you should know the following:  

  • Submission deadline;  
  • Submission process (email, online forms, online portal, etc.); 
  • Minimum and maximum award amounts; 
  • Priorities in funding; 
  • Eligible applicants; 
  • Total funds available in the grant pool (to evaluate likely competition); 
  • Start and end dates for the project; 
  • Duration of the project; 
  • Allowed expenses; 
  • Ineligible expenses; 
  • Application requirements/checklist (including guidance, if any, on including ‘letters of support’ or ‘letters of commitment’ or ‘letters of partnership’).  If possible, submit letters even if they are not required, as they will strengthen the proposal; 
  • Evaluation Criteria 

 

Ask Questions

Each funding opportunity is usually assigned to a grant manager. As you prepare, ask the grant manager for clarification via email, or possibly request a face-to-face, telephone, or online meeting. You can confirm with the grant manager that your project is eligible before starting to work on it. Establishing communication with the grant manager will not impact your scoring, but it can help you avoid misunderstandings about the grant submission. You can also ask about the history of the funding opportunity in terms of the number of applications and awards made each year.  

Note that the grant manager is often not the same as the grant reviewer. Most grants are reviewed by a team of individuals with particular insights into the agriculture industry.  

Sometimes there are opportunities available to serve as a grant reviewer (just not on a grant for which you are submitting a proposal). Serving as a grant reviewer can be helpful to make you a better grant writer. 

 

Seek Funding for Timely Projects

It’s better to apply for a grant for a project that’s already fully conceptualized or possibly started, instead of creating a project solely in response to a funding opportunity. Projects too far outside the funding scope are unlikely to be funded, and projects also need to be realistic and completed within the grant timeframe. As a busy farm operator, you'll need to identify which farm projects are ready to prioritize and could be a good fit for grant funding. 

For example, you might have faced recent climate-related challenges to your field crops and feel ready to invest in high tunnel production systems. Perhaps you are concerned about worsening soil health and erosion and are ready to incorporate cover crops. Or you may wish to expand your retail sales, and are ready to build a farm stand. Or maybe your electrical use is growing, and you see the need to install solar panels and energy efficiency upgrades. 

 

Register Your Business

In the agriculture sector, state and federal funding opportunities require that you formally register your business. Ensure that you have taken care of these steps early on to avoid delays in submission.  

If applying for a federal grant through USDA, you will likely need to register with the Farm Service Agency to get your Farm Record Number; you may also need to create an account on grants.gov for submission. Federal grants also require a unique entity identifier (UEI).  

If applying for a state grant, you will likely need to: 

  • register your farm business with the Connecticut Secretary of State;  
  • register for a Sales Tax Exemption Certificate with the Connecticult Department of Revenue Service.  

 

Create an Outline

Each grant opportunity has a different preference on how to organize your proposal narrative; however, most follow some version of this outline hierarchy: 

  • Overall Goal 
    • Objectives 
      • Outputs 
        • Activities/Steps 

 

Outcomes

 It is easier to write a grant application when you know your end goal. As you sketch out your project, think in terms of your longer-term outcomes and all the steps to get there. Most proposals will ask for a version of your goals, objectives, activities, outputs, and outcomes. 

Usually, activities, steps, and outputs are all talking about the same thing, referring to what will be done (e.g. greenhouse built, food safety training accomplished, cover crop seed applied, tools purchased).  

The activities or steps offer details about what is happening sequentially. Objectives and Outputs pull all the steps together and can usually be measured in some way, such as # of feet, quantity of seed, # of hours trained, etc.  

  • Goal 1) To increase sales at farmers markets by providing new value-added products for sale that expand our offerings and are shelf stable. 
    • Objective 1) To offer a new relish product for sale to customers in the farmers market that prefer West Indian flavors. 
    • Output 1) Develop a new relish product and produce 200 8 oz jars of the relish for the farmers’ market. 
      • Activity 1.1 - Complete ServSafe certification training and other mandatory food safety trainings 
      • Activity 1.2 - Secure Cottage Food license 
      • Activity 1.3 - Purchase food processing equipment 
      • Activity 1.4 - Test recipes for new relish 
      • Activity 1.5 - Bring relish to retail in Main Street Farmers Market 
      • Activity 1.6 - Use enterprise budgeting to track new sales/costs by adding the new relish to our products. 

Outcomes (or impacts), typically refer to the result of that grant investment in your business. Ideally, outcomes are measurable. For example: 

  • Outcome: As a result of developing a new relish product for the farmers market, that will appeal to our customer demographic, we anticipate our farm retails sales will grow by five percent within 12 months.  

 

Other examples of outcomes:  

  • As a result of building a greenhouse, we anticipate a 25% increase within the next year in production of plant material for Easter and Mother’s Day sales;  
  • As a result of installing livestock fencing, we anticipate more efficient pasture management and healthier herds; 
  • As a result of investing in new branding and signage, we expect sales to increase by 10%; 
  • As a result of investing in new cover cropping systems, we anticipate a 15% savings on fertilizer inputs.  

 

Write

Start writing your grant application early. Create a ‘stormy first draft’ where you write everything down; you can clean it up later. Use a grant proposal workbook (example from Purdue at https://s.uconn.edu/grant-planner) if it helps organize your writing and work. Use your RFP notes and the categories it provides to outline your ideas for the grant proposal. Include the project timeline, evaluation metrics, and impact the grant or project will have.  

Think about your reviewer (audience) and write a grant proposal for them. Remember, they do not know your farm and project like you do. You want to tell a story about it that they can understand; the story should be compelling yet concise and justify why you need this project and the outcome it will have on your farm.  

Grant funders often ask for a final report on what was accomplished with the funds; your early narrative will be a good resource for completing this. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is frequently used in grant writing; however, be cautious when using it on grant applications. AI is beneficial for idea generation and editing but you should write the application yourself. The review panel is often other peer farmers, and they may recognize you or your farm even with an anonymized application. Therefore, it’s important that the grant application and scope are both practical and doable. 

 

Budget

Make sure the funds requested fit within the allowable costs for this particular funding opportunity. 

Common budget categories include salary and fringe, equipment, materials, consultants, and other (rental fees, registration fees, etc.). However, prior incurred expenses cannot be included in the new grant proposal. 

Be realistic about your budget and timeline, and get quotes from service providers rather than estimating. In many cases you will need to include the full project cost, not just what the grant will cover.  

Many grants require the farm to partially match the grant funds through cash or in-kind contributions (usually farmer’s own labor or volunteer time). Explain how and where funds not covered by the grant will come from – funders want to be sure that projects will be completed. Create a budget justification with text that explains the numbers. 

 

Budget Justification
Example 1 

Salary & Fringe = $10,779 

Weak justification: 415 hours for wages and fringe for sales staff and farm staff. 

Strong justification:  

  • $6000 for sales manager (J. Brown) at $25/hour x 240 hours to conduct sales promotion of new products grown in high tunnel, estimating 120 hours per project year; 
  • $1500 for farm manager (B. White) at $20/hour x 75 hours to work with greenhouse company and coordinate tunnel build;  
  • $1635 for 2 seasonal farm crew members (TBD) at $16.35/hour x 50 hours each to assist with high tunnel build; 
  • $1644 for fringe at 18% fringe rate*. 


(A fringe rate accounts for state payroll taxes (state unemployment insurance, paid family medical leave, state income tax), FICA (employer contribution to social security and Medicare) plus worker's compensation, health benefits, retirement benefits) 

 

Example 2 

Equipment = $8,470 

Weak justification: To purchase a BCS and attachments. 

Strong justification:  

  • $5974 for a BCS 853 Walk-Behind Tractor (WG BCS 853 13E); 
  • $2249 for chipper/shredder attachment for BCS tractor to implement new composting system; 
  • $247 for shipping. 

 

Example 3 

Materials = $2,439 

Weak justification: To purchase 200 pounds of cover crop seed, 1000 feet of row cover, plus shade cloth and insect netting. 

Strong justification:  

  • $560 for 200# of fall green manure mix from (provide the company name and link to the product page on their website); 
  • $92 for shipping costs for cover crop seed ($23/50 pound bag x 4 bags); 
  • $263 for 20’ x 100’ of greenhouse shade cloth to cover heat sensitive crops; 
  • $1260 for 83” x 820’ of ProtekNet insect netting to line high tunnel sides and cover pest prone crops in field; 
  • $264 for 14’ x 1000’ of DeWitt Floating row cover to cover pest sensitive crops in field. 

 

Example 4 

Consultant(s) = $10,500 

Weak justification: $7500 for architect, $2250 for engineer, and $750 for logo design 

Strong justification:  

  • $7500 for architectural designer (The Farmzi Design Group) at $150/hour x 50 hours to draw up plans for farm stand. See the attached quote; 
  • $2250 for structural engineer (Joe Buildit) at $225/hour x 10 hours to assist with new beam/roof designs and approval. See the attached quote; 
  • $750 for designer (Pattern Design Co) at $50/hour x 15 hours to create new logo. See the attached quote.  

 

About Cost Shares

Cost share, if required, is an expectation that the applicant financially contributes to the project. Cost share is usually calculated as a percentage of the total project costs and can be in the form of cash or in-kind (the value of your time or labor of others that is spent on the project).  

For example, if the granting agency is asking for a 25% cost share and your total project cost is $75,000, the cost share for your farm is $18,750. If only a cash match is allowed, you must commit to spending the $18,750 out of pocket. If in-kind matches are allowed, you could value your time using the Independent Sector volunteer value for Connecticut or salary data if you pay yourself a regular salary. 

 

Edit

Editing essentially includes reviewing the RFP again and making sure your document adheres to word or page count specifications. Use headings, sub-headings, lists, and other formatting to make the grant proposal easier to read.  

Next, it's time for the actual editing. Print out a paper copy if you edit it better that way. Use the spelling and grammar functions in Microsoft Word, and ask someone else to read and review your application. Reading the application backwards (starting at the end and reading towards the beginning) is another way to find errors or unclear sections.  

 

Create Supplemental Materials

Many grant opportunities require supplemental documents and/or allow appendices to supplement the application; be sure these are allowed before you submit them.  

Some of the most frequently requested documents are copies of your business plan, crop plans, financials, tax filings, infrastructure drawings or visuals, and quotes from contractors for proposed work.  

Quotes from contractors should be paired with letters of commitment from the consultant stating their rates (ask them to use their letterhead). Request quotes from contractors or equipment firms at least three weeks before the submission date.  

Some applicants also use screenshots from websites to show the product(s) and price(s) of an item in their budget. You will need all of these ahead of time to calculate your budget. 

Create a table of contents for the appendices if there are multiple items. Make a backup file for your work and use the Cloud so you don’t lose anything if your computer crashes. 

 

Complete a Final Review

Read the RFP and review your checklist one more time. Be sure the application is complete. Re-read your narrative and submission and make any final edits.  

Pay attention if there is a scoring rubric provided and align your materials. Look through the submission portal again and review the process ahead of time to determine if it’s an online application, emailed, or submitted in another format. If it’s an online application, create an account and ensure you can access the grant submission portal well ahead of the deadline. 

 

Submit your Grant Application

Always submit your grant application early if possible. There are horror stories about losing Internet access, hard drive crashes, or other events that prevented grant applications from being submitted.  

Once your application is in, take a moment to congratulate yourself on the achievement, and then wait for the funder's response.  

 

Grant Sources for Connecticut Farmers

The following organizations offer grants for Connecticut farmers. Explore their websites for more information on the types of funding available and typical due dates. 

  • American Farmland Trust; 
  • Connecticut Department of Agriculture; 
  • Connecticut Farm Energy; 
  • Farm Credit East; 
  • Farmer Veteran Coalition; 
  • Northeast SARE; 
  • Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy; 
  • USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; 
  • USDA Rural Development; 
  • USDA Farm Service Agency (loans); 
  • UConn Extension; 
  • Women’s Business Development Council; 
  • Other non-profits and agencies 

Connecticut farmers should also subscribe to the Department of Agriculture’s weekly bulletin as it shares grant opportunities and deadlines.  

Most farms in Connecticut qualify as small businesses, and therefore may be eligible for grants issued by local or regional economic development organizations. 

 

Conclusion and Recommendations

Grant writing can seem daunting but is less overwhelming when segmented into smaller pieces and provides a chance to think about your business from a different perspective. Not all grant proposals are accepted, but many funders will provide feedback on your application. Use the reviewer feedback to strengthen future applications; many funders will also let you revise and resubmit your application in the next grant cycle.  

Grants are an important investment in farm improvements, expansion, diversification, and innovation. Many opportunities exist for Connecticut farmers; find the grant program that’s a good fit for your business and start writing. 

 

Business Planning Resources and Trainings Available

  • UConn Extension has business planning resources available: 

 

 

Resources

Independent Sector. (n.d.). Independent Sector. https://independentsector.org/ 

Marshall, M.I., Johson, A., & Fulton, J. (2006, June). Writing a successful grant proposal. Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics. https://ag.purdue.edu/department/agecon/_docs/aquaculture/writing-a-successful-grant-proposal.pdf 

National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). (n.d.). General grant writing tips for success. https://www.nifa.usda.gov/sites/default/files/resource/General-Grant-Writing-Tips-for-Success.pdf 

Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE). (n.d.). Tips for submitting a strong farmer grant proposal. https://northeast.sare.org/grants/get-a-grant/farmer-grant-program/tips-for-submitting-a-strong-farmer-grant-proposal/ 

Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets. (n.d.). Tips for writing a successful grant application. https://agriculture.vermont.gov/tips-writing-successful-grant-application 

 

The information in this document is for educational purposes only.  The recommendations contained are based on the best available knowledge at the time of publication.  Any reference to commercial products, trade or brand names is for information only, and no endorsement or approval is intended.  UConn Extension does not guarantee or warrant the standard of any product referenced or imply approval of the product to the exclusion of others which also may be available.  The University of Connecticut, UConn Extension, College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources is an equal opportunity program provider and employer.