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Pursuant to the Farm Bill, eligible applicants include agricultural producers and rural small businesses. To be eligible for grants, applicants must demonstrate financial need. Some of the key definitions in the program are as follows:
- Rural -- Any area other than a city or town that has a population of greater than 50,000 inhabitants and the urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to such a city or town according to the latest decennial census of the United States. Contact State Rural Energy Coordinator to determine if you and your project qualify as "rural." Find your Rural Energy Coordinator.
- Agricultural producer - An individual or entity directly engaged in the production of agricultural products, including crops (including farming); livestock (including ranching); forestry products; hydroponics; nursery stock; or aquaculture, whereby 50 percent or greater of their gross income is derived from the operations.
- Small business - An entity is considered a small business in accordance with the Small Business Administration (SBA) small business
size standards by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) found in title 13 CFR part 121. Must be either:
- A private entity including a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, cooperative (including a cooperative qualified under section 501(c)(12) of the Internal Revenue Code), or
- An electric utility including a Tribal or Governmental Electric Utility that provides service to rural consumers on a cost-of-service basis without support from public funds or subsidy from the Government authority establishing the district. These entities must operate independent of direct Government control.
Public or private nonprofit is excluded, except as provided above. In addition, an applicant may qualify as a "very small business" if the entity is a business with fewer than 15 employees and less than $1 million in annual receipts.
- Demonstrated financial need -- if applying for a grant, the applicant must demonstrate that it is unable to finance the project from its own and commercially available resources without grant assistance, or that the project proposed by the applicant cannot achieve the income and cashflows to sustain it financially over the long term without grant assistance.
Other provisions of applicant eligibility for the program are:
- Individuals must be citizens of the United States (U.S.) or reside in the U.S. after being legally admitted for permanent residence.
- Entities must be at least 51 percent owned, directly or indirectly, by individuals who are either citizens of the U.S. or reside in the U.S. after being legally admitted for permanent residence.
- If an applicant is applying as a rural small business, the business headquarters may be in either a rural or non-rural area at the time of application and at the time of grant disbursement.
- If the applicant or an owner has an outstanding judgment obtained by the United States in a Federal Court (other than in the United States Tax Court), is delinquent in the payment of Federal income taxes, or is delinquent on a Federal debt, the applicant is not eligible to receive a grant until the judgment is paid in full or otherwise satisfied or the delinquency is resolved.
- An applicant that has received one or more grants and/or loans under this program must make satisfactory progress, as determined by the Agency, toward completion of any previously funded projects before it will be considered for subsequent funding.
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