Cargill announced on May 14 that its Success From the Ground Up program is providing practical support to farmers in several key agricultural states. The program aims to help farmers adopt soil health practices suited to their local conditions by connecting them with established local organizations.
The initiative is important as it addresses challenges faced by farmers, such as tight margins, volatile markets, and unpredictable weather. By offering hands-on education and peer-to-peer learning opportunities, the program seeks to make proven soil health approaches more accessible and effective for individual farming operations.
Since its launch in 2023, Success From the Ground Up has reached over 193,000 people through workshops, field days, online resources, and peer networks. More than $3 million has been invested in 13 organizations across ten states. Farmers benefit from tailored education and mentoring that considers local growing conditions. “Farmers want to know what practices work on farms like theirs,” said Alayna Jacobs, Conservation Agronomist at Cargill. “These practices are well established, but how they work varies based on the site characteristics and details of each operation. By supporting local partners and farmer networks, we are helping turn proven approaches into practical solutions that fit each grower’s goals.”
Programs under this initiative are led by nonprofits, conservation groups, and farmer networks rooted in their communities. Lisa Holscher, Director at Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative (CCSI), said: “Support from Cargill helps us meet farmers where they are on their own soil health journey. When farmers can see results locally and learn directly from other farmers who have ‘been there and done that’, they’re more confident – and successful – in making changes that can build economic and weather-related resiliency and profitability in their operations.” Rodney Rulon, a corn and soybean farmer in Indiana who works with CCSI added: “We’ve seen how soil health practices like cover crops pay off on our own operation… That’s why we have been working with CCSI for over a decade to show other farmers how practices like cover crops and no-till make economic sense.”
The program emphasizes scaling existing successful efforts by investing in local organizations so these methods can be implemented effectively at the field level.
Grant recipients for Success From the Ground Up in 2026 include Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District Foundation (Illinois), Conservation Technology Information Center (Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio), Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative (Indiana), Kansas Black Farmers Association (Kansas), No-Till on the Plains (Kansas/Oklahoma), Ohio No-Till Council (Ohio), Sand County Foundation (Iowa/Illinois/Missouri/Wisconsin).
