U of I submits revised proposal for $59 million grant

By Amy Calabretta

University of Idaho

MOSCOW, Idaho – University of Idaho has submitted an amended version of the Innovative Agriculture and Marketing Partnership (IAMP) grant to the United States Department of Agriculture to meet revised federal guidelines placing greater emphasis on marketing and direct payments to producers.

Originally awarded in 2024, the nearly $59 million IAMP grant was the largest in U of I’s history, intended to provide payments to Idaho producers for developing sustainable agricultural practices.

The grant was terminated in April 2025 due to new criteria from USDA which required at least 65% of grant funds go directly to producers. In the original IAMP proposal, more than half of the funding was allocated for direct incentive payments to producers, with the rest of the grant, excluding direct administrative costs, intended to provide technical and marketing services to enrolled producers — saving them the cost of contracting those services independently. 

USDA gave U of I the opportunity to resubmit the IAMP grant, with revisions to more closely align with USDA’s new Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) initiative.

U of I’s revised proposal includes $39.2 million in direct incentives to producers, which is 66% of the overall budget. These funds include reimbursements for implementing approved conservation practices, similar to the original proposal.

The updated proposal also includes $3.5 million in direct payments to producers for marketing efforts, which is a main focus of the AMP initiative.

In the revised proposal, research would continue at five U of I research and Extension centers, focusing on evaluating the effectiveness of approved conservation practices.

Some of the original research objectives, such as required on-farm soil sampling and in-field baseline comparisons, would be scaled back to direct more funds toward marketing efforts.

The revised proposal will provide more resources to growers on how to best market sustainably grown products to increase revenues.

As of March, the IAMP project had received applications from 201 Idaho producers representing 34 Idaho counties, across seven commodities.

Several producers had completed all the paperwork and were enrolled, and others were in the final stages.

Producers will be the first to be notified if U of I’s resubmitted proposal is accepted. USDA has indicated that a response about the revised proposal should be received within 30-60 days.