The Governments of Ontario and Canada are investing $7.3 million through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to help support farmers and agri-food businesses. The investment will fund projects in priority areas that increase food safety, accelerate sector innovation and help farmers bring new products to market to grow
their businesses.
This funding supports more than 600 cost-shared projects that strengthen Ontario’s agri-food sector by helping eligible farmers in over 270 communities across the province to continue producing safe, high quality food in Ontario.
David Piccini, MPP for Northumberland-Peterborough South, highlighted the cost-share funding through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to eligible farmers and agri-food businesses. Included among the more than 600 projects are 23 in Northumberland-Peterborough South. These local projects are receiving a total investment of $282,187.91. Project locations include Keene, Gores Landing, Norwood, Baltimore, Warkworth, Cobourg, Hastings and Newcastle.
“Through this investment of over $282,000 we are supporting a range of local farmerdriven projects to improve on farm practices,” said MPP David Piccini. “It’s about supporting growth at the farm level, which will have positive impacts across Ontario’s agri-food sector. Building resiliency within our agri-food sector will help keep our
province’s food supply strong and more able to adapt to challenges in the future.”
Positive outcomes of projects funded under this intake include:
· Improvement of food safety systems on farms to meet or exceed national and international certification standards;
· Development of products that will open new sales markets for farm businesses for example, a new organic pepper product to expand markets or developing maple butter as a new, value-added farm product;
· Planting cover crops to improve soil health and reduce soil erosion losses over winter;
· Increasing preventative measures to help reduce pest damage at greenhouse operations; and
· Upgrades to animal-handling equipment to improve animal welfare and reduce disease transmission on livestock farms.
Since June 2018, both the federal and provincial governments have committed over $100 million in cost-share support to more than 5,000 projects through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to help eligible Ontario farmers, processors, businesses and sector organizations innovate and grow.
QUICK FACTS
· The Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a five-year, $3 billion investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments to strengthen the agriculture and agri-food sector, ensuring continued innovation, growth and prosperity. This commitment includes $2 billion for programs that are cost-shared by the federal and provincial
and territorial governments and are designed and delivered by provinces and territories.
· This cost-share funding is supporting projects in the following key priority areas:
o Economic development in the agri-food and agri-products sectors.
o Environmental stewardship to enhance water quality and soil health.
o Protection and assurance to reinforce the foundation for public trust in the sector through improved assurance systems in food safety and plant and animal health.
· In Ontario, cost-share programming to support farmers and other businesses through the Partnership is delivered by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA).
· For more information about the programming contact OMAFRA via ag.info.omafra@ontario.ca or 1-877-424-1300.
· The Ontario agri-food sector supports more than 860,000 jobs in Ontario and contributes more than $47.3 billion each year to the province’s economy.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
