Farmers, ranchers and small forest owners across the state who volunteer to adopt climate-smart agricultural practices can apply for financial incentives through the Texas Climate-Smart Initiative.

The initiative is a five-year, large-scale pilot project led by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resource Conservation Service. The goal is to help farmers and ranchers adopt climate-smart agricultural and forestry practices, access benefits and develop models for voluntary, market-based climate solutions.

“Our main focus in this project is to simultaneously improve resilience to climate change and mitigation of climate change through adoption of climate-smart practices,” said Dr. Julie Howe, Texas A&M University soil chemistry and fertility professor.

Representatives of the Texas Climate-Smart Initiative will work with participants selected through an application process, helping them understand and implement climate-smart practices. Initiative leaders select new participants bimonthly. Farmers, ranchers and forest owners who have already adopted climate-smart practices are eligible.

“Texas’ diversity in agriculture and natural resources—seen in our climates and soil—particularly, makes Texas a great place to create solutions that can be scaled to other areas of the nation and build upon existing infrastructure,” she said.

Prospective participants can apply at the Texas Climate-Smart Initiative website at climatesmart.tamu.edu.

Specific incentive information is also available at the site’s producer resources page. Details include climate-smart agricultural practices for livestock, row crops, forestry, confined animal operations and edges of fields or partial fields.