United States Department of Agriculture 

Farm Service Agency

FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT

Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program

September 2023

On behalf of the United States Department of Agriculture, in coordination with the Farm 

Service Agency (FSA), the Farm Program and Conservation (FPAC) Business Center (BC) 

Environmental Activities Division has prepared a Programmatic Environmental Assessment 

(PEA) on behalf of the Farm Service Agency Office of Outreach to evaluate the environmental 

consequences associated with implementing the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access 

Program (ILA). Section 1006 of the American Rescue Plan Act, as amended by Section 22007 of 

the Inflation Reduction Act, included the provisions for USDA to ensure underserved producers 

have resources, tools, programs, and technical support they need to succeed. 

Through the funds provided by Section 1006 as amended, USDA will provide resources to 

entities by entering into cooperative agreements and/or grants to address land access issues that 

underserved producers face. Selected cooperative agreements and/or grants will ultimately focus 

on designing and/or deploying new programs or expanding successful existing models to address 

the three major barriers (land access, capital access, or market access), or a combination of those 

barriers, to producer and landowner success, resiliency, and viability. Selected cooperative 

agreements and/or grants will achieve, but are not limited to, the following outcomes:

• Increased access to farm ownership opportunities; 

• Increased access and improved results for heirs’ property and highly fractionated land 

access; 

• Increased land ownership, land succession, and agricultural business planning; and

• Increased access to markets and capital that affect the ability to access land.

Selected entities will work collaboratively with USDA and with other Section 1006 cooperators 

to deliver targeted outreach and technical assistance programs designed to address and meet the 

needs of underserved agricultural producers.

Since ILA is a national program, the geographic scope of this PEA covers the entire U.S.

Given the broad nature of the program, the Environmental Assessment (EA) is 

programmatic and is intended to provide the basis for the tiered, site-specific NEPA 

documentation that would occur prior to implementation of access and improvement

activities. The PEA was available for public review and comment from June 14, 2023,

through July 14, 2023, and was publicized through news outlets via multiple press releases.

Twenty-eight comments were received (27 individuals; and 1 NGOs/interested groups). 

Summaries of the comments can be found in Appendix D of the final PEA, and if changes 

were made to the document the section is also recorded on the table; however, none of the 
proposed edits to the PEA substantially changed the alternatives or impact analyses. The 

notice of availability of the final PEA and this signed FONSI will be announced in a press 

release through the Secretary’s office and will be available for public viewing following the 

announcement at: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/environmental-culturalresource/nepa/current-nepa-documents/index for a period of 30 calendar days.

Proposed Action

FSA proposes to fund grants and cooperative agreements for projects that help move 

underserved producers from surviving to thriving through the Increasing Land, Capital, and 

Market Access (Increasing Land Access) Program. The Increasing Land Access Program would 

increase access to farm ownership opportunities, increase access and improve results for those 

with heirs’ property or highly fractionated land, increase access to markets and capital that affect 

the ability to access land, and increase land ownership, land succession, and agricultural business 

planning. Below are the broad categories of actions analyzed in the PEA:

• Outreach and Education. These activities will foster understanding and 

awareness of the various assistance opportunities available to underserved 

producers. Examples of activities under this category includes, but is not limited 

to, hosting educational workshops, website development, and content creation 

(flyers, handouts, etc.). These activities are anticipated to help the target audience 

identify the programs and services at USDA that are appropriate for their farming, 

ranching, or forest land operations. It is expected that partners will utilize these 

activities to inform needs assessments for future technical or financial assistance 

to be offered through the ILA project.

• Technical Assistance. These activities are primarily office-based in existing sites, 

involving no direct or indirect interactions with the biological or physical 

environment or alterations to the built environment. When activities do take place 

outdoors, such as field demonstrations or site-specific farm planning, they will be 

informative in nature and will not involve ground disturbance, vegetation 

removal, and/or change in land use.

• Land, Capital, and Market Access. These activities will primarily be in the 

form of providing financial assistance opportunities to underserved producers for 

the purpose of accessing land, capital, and markets. Examples of activities under 

this category include, but are not limited to: land acquisition through purchases 

and/or long-term leases; establishment of demonstration farms; establishment of 

loan, revolving loan, grant and/or other programs to provide funding to target 

audience for a variety of purposes including down payments for land purchase, 

term financing for land purchase, incubator farms, equipment purchase, 

operating/startup expenses and other farming expenses; and creating markets or 

market access for target audience.

• Land, Capital, and Market Improvements. These activities will primarily be in 

the form of providing financial assistance opportunities to underserved producers 

for the purpose of improving existing operation or lands made available through 

access activities described above. Examples of activities under this category 

include, but are not limited to: construction and/or installation of buildings, 
irrigation systems, wash and pack facilities, marketing facilities; equipment 

purchase; expansion of existing incubator farms, demonstration farms, buildings, 

facilities; expansion of existing markets; and expansion of existing loan, 

revolving loan, grant and/or other programs to provide funding to target audience 

for a variety of purposes related to farming expenses. Sustainable agricultural 

practices such as no-till residue management, cover crop, crop rotation and other 

regenerative agricultural practices may be eligible for financial assistance.

Reasons for Finding of No Significant Impact

Programmatic environmental documents analyze impacts on a broad scale, in this case the 

introduction of a new program that will result in subsequent specific actions. Because of the 

large geographic scope and the innovative nature of ILA, it is not possible to meaningfully

predict the location of the site-specific access and improvement activities, nor the 

environmental conditions that exist on those lands. Thus, before implementing access or 

improvement activities, a site-specific environmental review is completed to evaluate any 

impacts that may require additional compliance with NEPA and other laws, regulations, and 

executive orders.

In consideration of the analysis documented in the PEA and the reasons outlined in this 

Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), the Proposed Action would not constitute a 

major Federal action that would significantly affect the human environment; therefore, an 

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will not be prepared. The determination is based on 

the following:

1. Potential beneficial and adverse impacts of implementing the Proposed Action

have been fully considered within thePEA. No significant adverse direct, indirect,

or cumulative effects were identified, based on the resource analyses provided in 

thePEA.

2. Site-specific environmental reviews would be conducted for all access and 

improvement activities and the impacts to the following resources would be 

evaluated in that analysis based on conditions of each site: Cultural Resources, 

Threatened and Endangered Species, Coastal Barriers, Coastal Zone Management 

Act Areas, Wilderness Areas, Wild and Scenic Rivers and Nationwide Rivers 

Inventory, National Natural Landmarks, Sole Source Aquifers, Floodplains, Noise, 

Important Land Resources, and Environmental Justice.

3. As detailed in the analysis presented in the PEA, the Proposed Action would not 

significantly affect soils and other important land resources, socioeconomics and 

environmental justice, or climate change. 

4. The Proposed Action would not involve effectsto the quality of the human

environment that are likely to be highly controversial.

5. The Proposed Action would not establish a precedent for future actions with significant

effects and does not represent a decision in principle about a future consideration.

6. The Proposed Action does not result in cumulative significant impacts when considered 
with other actions that also individually have insignificant impacts.

7. The Proposed Action does not threaten a violation of Federal, State, or local law or 

requirements imposed for the protection of the environment.

8. Comments received on the PEA did not warrant substantive changes to the alternatives or 

impact analyses, and no controversies were identified.

Determination

In accordance with the NEPA and FSA's environmental regulations at 7 Code of Federal 

Regulations (CFR) Part 799, which implement the regulations of the Council on Environmental 

Quality found at 40 CFR parts 1500-1508, I find the Proposed Action is not a major Federal 

action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment; therefore, no Environmental 

Impact Statement will be prepared.

Steve Peterson

Farm Service Agency

Associate Adminstrator