USDA Announces More Fertilizer Grants

OMAHA (DTN) -- USDA is awarding $35 million for seven projects in seven states through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program (CPEP). The funds will help U.S. fertilizer businesses expand nutrient production.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the grants at the 2024 Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, on Wednesday. According to a USDA news release, the program provides grants to independent business owners to help modernize equipment, adopt new technologies and build production plants.

USDA has invested $286.6 million in 64 projects across 32 states through FPEP. According to the release, these projects have created 768 new jobs in communities across the country and will increase domestic fertilizer production by over 5.6 million tons.

Awards were made to facilities in California, Iowa, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The largest award of $11.7 million went to AdvanSix Inc. located in Hopewell, Virginia. The company is an ammonium sulfate producer that provides 31,400 agricultural producers with granular ammonium sulfate through the Midwest and the East Coast.

The grant will be used to expand an existing facility. The plant expansion will increase capacity through equipment and storage activities. This project will expand the operational capacity by 195,000 tons per year and increase the total production to more than 36,000 ag producers.

The Iowa project went to Quality Flow Environment LLC of Maquoketa, Iowa, with an award of $4.7 million.

This grant will be used to construct a new thermochemical manufacturing facility for production of a fertilizer product made from dairy waste. The company utilizes waste generated from a contiguous dairy into a carbon product through a process called torrefaction.

The process creates a high-quality, viable fertilizer product from animal waste feedstock. This facility is expected to generate over 540,000 tons of solid carbon-ready product annually, which will be made available to local producers in the region.

"The Biden-Harris Administration continues to make innovative investments that bolster rural communities and support farmers, ranchers and small business owners," Vilsack said.

"The investments announced today will increase domestic fertilizer production and strengthen our supply chain, while creating good-paying jobs to benefit all Americans."

President Biden and USDA created FPEP to combat issues facing American farmers due to rising fertilizer prices, which more than doubled between 2021 and 2022 due to a variety of factors such as war in Ukraine and a lack of competition in the fertilizer industry, according to the release.

The administration committed up to $900 million through the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) for FPEP. Funding supports long-term investments that will strengthen supply chains, create new economic opportunities for American businesses, and support climate-smart innovation.

In 2023, DTN took a closer look at the USDA fertilizer grant program, and to determine if these grants have much of an effect on the nutrient supply for U.S. farmers. See that article here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….

Russ Quinn can be reached at Russ.Quinn@dtn.com

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