2023 Grant Cycle

Demestic mThe Qualified Agricultural Program (QAP), by statute, authorizes the Commission to support and foster the vitality and solvency of the tobacco-related segment of the agricultural economy with emphasis on the segment adversely impacted by the MSA.

The majority of NCTTFC applicants fall under the QAP category and are agriculturally based.

Projects will address one or more of the following goals:

• Alleviating and avoiding unemployment in the tobacco-related sector of the state’s agricultural economy
• Preserving and increasing the local tax base in agricultural areas
• Encouraging the economic stability of participants in the state’s agricultural economy
• Optimally using natural resources in the tobacco-related segment of the state’s agricultural economy
• Supporting and fostering the vitality and solvency of a tobacco-related sector

Examples of possible QAP projects include, but are not limited to:

• Incentives to finance diversification due to loss of the quota system
• Programs for farmer cooperatives, commodities or farmer’s markets
• Programs to incentives the modernization of farming equipment or conversion of existing equipment to conform to environmental and other regulatory requirements
• Programs to assist in the conversion or replacement of equipment in order to cultivate crops that are more profitable than those currently being cultivated
• Domestic marketing or export programs for NC Products
• Incentives to grow and/or research alternative crops and/or fuel sources
• Development of value-added facilities and/or resources
• Programs that encourage purchase of NC products and prove sustainability of family farms
• Educational initiatives to sustain farming as a viable profession

Indirect Compensatory Program Grants are made available under the statute to fund projects that indirectly compensate entities or identified groups for economic losses resulting from lost quota or declining market conditions caused by the MSA.

Potential recipients could include either current or former tobacco farmers and/or quota holders who have received Phase II payments. The applicant must describe how the grant administrator will quantify actual losses due to the Master Settlement Agreement that were not compensated by payments from the National Tobacco Grower Settlement Trust (“Phase II Trust”). (Limit to one-half page narrative attachment – clearly cite and describe any information — published reports, published statistics etc. – that will be used to quantify losses not already compensated by Phase II payments.) Losses must be documented to have occurred in calendar year 1998 and after. ICP grants will be made for no more than one year at a time.

Indirect Compensatory projects may indirectly benefit any of the following:

• Persons engaged in tobacco-related business (except tobacco product wholesaling and retailing)
• Persons displaced from tobacco-related employment in North Carolina (except persons employed in the sale of tobacco products at wholesale or retail)
• Tobacco product component businesses that are adversely impacted by the MSA and which need financial assistance to retool machinery or equipment or to retrain workers, in order to convert to the production of new products or nontobacco use of existing products.

The indirect nature of the grant will require that an organization or group apply to provide a needed service or program for individuals that have been adversely affected by the MSA.  

*If you feel that your project qualifies as an ICP Grant, please contact the NCTTFC office to discuss.