A popular Biden-era federal grant program that helped drive cover crop and no-till adoption and other climate-focused practices has been cancelled by the Trump administration over concerns about “sky-high administration fees.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins characterized the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC) program Monday as a “slush fund” from the previous administration after a line-by-line review was of every partnership in the program was conducted.

In many instances, according to Rollins, less than half of the federal funding for the programs went directly to farmers. Select projects may continue, Rollins said, “if it is demonstrated that a significant amount of the federal funds awarded will go to farmers.”

“We continue to support farmers and encourage partners to ensure their projects are farmer focused or re-apply to continue work that is aligned with the priorities of this Administration. With this action, USDA is cutting bureaucratic red tape, streamlining reporting, lowering the paperwork burden on producers and putting farmers first.”

Rollins also announced the PCSC program would be evolved into the “Advancing Markets for Producers” (AMP) initiative. Existing grants will be reviewed on three “Farmer First” policy priorities: a minimum of 65% of federal funds must go to farmers, and grant recipients must have enrolled at least one producer and must have made a payment to at least one producer as of Dec. 31, 2024.

Rollins went on to say the PCSC initiative was, “largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers. The concerns of farmers took a backseat during the Biden Administration.

“During my short time as Secretary, I have heard directly from our farmers that many of the USDA partnerships are overburdened by red tape, have ambiguous goals, and require complex reporting that push farmers onto the sidelines. We are correcting these mistakes and redirecting our efforts to set our farmers up for an unprecedented era of prosperity.”

Rollins said the USDA will contact current partners individually to provide information about their future participation. USDA will honor all eligible expenses incurred prior to April 13, 2025. This reform effort will utilize existing funding, with no new funding made available for these partnerships, the USDA said.

In 2022, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the $1 billion Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities opportunity designed to help finance pilot projects from farmers, ranchers and forest landowners who take steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions, capture and store carbon, and/or generate other environmental benefits. The initiative was designed specifically to expand markets for U.S. agricultural products and forestry products through voluntary deployment of conservation practices.

Proposals for the funding needed to focus on implementing climate-smart production practices, activities and systems on working lands; measuring and/or quantifying, monitoring and verifying the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with the practices; and developing markets and promoting the climate-smart commodities generated under the initiative.

The program was in response to a January 2021 executive order from Biden, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. One element of the strategy was expanding the use of climate-smart farming practices and aid in the marketing of agricultural commodities.

The term ‘‘climate-smart commodity’’ was used to refer to an agricultural commodity that is produced using farming practices that reduce GHG emissions or sequester carbon.

NRCS Chief Terry Cosby said a year ago the agency was making over $3 billion available from the Inflation Reduction Act, in addition to the $2 billion in existing Farm Bill funding, as an opportunity for all conservation-minded producers — including no-tillers — to receive assistance.

The agency said it was, through the PCSC, working with partners to build and expand market opportunities for American commodities produced using climate-smart practices through approximately 140 pilot projects.

The initiative is anticipated to provide financial and technical assistance to producers to implement climate-smart production practices on more than 60,000 farms, encompassing more than 25 million acres of working land. Of those, 87 projects were to assist producers with practices that included no-till and reduced till.