SCBGP — Specialty Crop Block Grants (through your state)

What this actually is

A grant for fruit, vegetable, tree nut, dried fruit, horticulture and nursery/floriculture work — with NO federal cost-sharing or matching requirement, which almost no other USDA competitive grant can say. You do not apply to USDA. Applications go to your STATE department of agriculture, which runs its own competition on its own calendar against its own priorities — a smaller field than a national one.

Who qualifies, and what trips people up

Individuals and other non-federal entities apply through the appropriate state department of agriculture. AMS posts the annual list of state RFPs; each state publishes its own request for proposals with its own deadline.