Sustainable Agriculture Small Grants Program open
14 July 2020
Assistance for regenerative and sustainable agriculture projects on farms
Council’s Sustainable Agriculture Small Grants Program is now open for the new financial year and accepting applications from local farmers.
Council is offering grants of up to $4,000 for eligible farming activities including support for projects that improve the health of soils, pastures and waterways in the Tweed.
The small grants help to provide farmers with financial and technical support to improve the health and productivity of the land.
Council’s Program Leader Sustainable Agriculture Eli Szandala said previous grant rounds have helped the Tweed’s primary producers implement important work that they would otherwise not have the time, money or technical support to do.
“The grants are flexible enough to allow farmers to bring forward innovative ideas and initiate projects that will have beneficial environmental outcomes, while also often improving farm yields,” Mr Szandala said.
Previous projects have included the use of biological controls of pests in vegetable and turf production that have eliminated the need for chemicals. Other beneficial projects have included fencing to establish rotational, mixed species grazing systems and upgrades to a dairy effluent management system.
Michele Stephens from Farm & Co at Cudgen was a previous grant recipient and put the funding towards incorporating chickens into market gardens to improve soil fertility and naturally reduce pests.
“The Sustainable Agriculture Small Grant has been a great boost for our business. We have been looking at starting this project for quite a few years and the grant gave us the chance to put our ideas into action,” Ms Stephens said.
“We wanted to incorporate our Silkie Bantams within our cropping production to assist with weeding and reducing bugs. So far we have noticed fewer bugs and the amount of weeding required has reduced slightly.
“The system is easily moved by one person and takes about 20 minutes. As the system ages we are looking at modifying the design of the shed and tunnels. I have to say we are off to a great start making our chickens part of our labour force,” she said.
To view the grant guidelines and application forms, visit www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/agriculture. Applications close at 4pm on Friday 21 August 2020.
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Photo 1(JPG, 160KB)
Caption: Previous recipients of a Tweed Shire Council Sustainable Agriculture Small Grant, Farm & Co., put the funding towards a project to incorporate chickens into market gardens to improve soil fertility and naturally reduce pests. A customer at Farm & Co. checking out the project.
Photo 2(JPG, 206KB)
Caption: Previous recipients of a Tweed Shire Council Sustainable Agriculture Small grant, Farm & Co., put the funding towards a project to incorporate chickens into market gardens to improve soil fertility and naturally reduce pests.