The successor of Growing Forward 1 (GF1), GF2 is the federal-provincial-territorial initiative endorsed in June 2013 designed to encourage innovation, competitiveness and market development. Similar to GF1, it features many cost sharing opportunities for farm businesses.
Some significant changes from the GF1 program and GF2 are as follows:
- Producers are no longer required to attend the free Growing Your Farm Profits or Environmental Farm Plan seminars in order to access funding. However, the seminars will still be available.
- Projects will be approved based on "merit" instead of "first come, first served" basis, as was the case under GF1.
- There are no longer individual funding "caps" per project. Applicants, however, will be limited to a total of $350,000 in funding over the 5 year period of the program.
- Producers can apply for two projects at any one time. After one project is either completed or withdrawn, then another one may then also be applied for.
Under GF2 individual farm businesses can apply for 50% cost sharing for Capacity Building activities (available now) or 35% cost sharing for Project Implementation (available September 2013).
The Capacity Building activities that will be supported fall into six areas of focus:
- Environmental and Climate Change
- Traceability, Food Safety, and Animal Welfare
- Market Development
- Animal and Plant Health
- Labour Productivity Enhancement
- Business and Leadership Development
A significant number of services provided by Collins Barrow would qualify for the 50% cost share funding under the Business and Leadership Development component of Capacity Building including:
- Succession planning
- Expansion planning
- Human resources planning
- Other miscellaneous business plans such as plans for start-up operations or analyzing the current situation facing your business
Some examples of other Capacity Building projects provided by professionals other than Collins Barrow that would qualify include:
- Risk assessment of on biosecurity practices
- Nutrient management planning
- Crop nutrient planning
- Water management planning
- Drainage design course
This is just a small sample of all the projects that would qualify. For a complete list, please refer to the following web-site:
If you are considering doing any of the listed projects, it is highly recommended that you get signed up for Growing Forward 2 as soon as possible to see if you would qualify for cost sharing assistance.
Details about the Project Implementation component of Growing Forward 2 will not be available until closer to the September, 2013 start date.
If you have any questions, please contact your local Collins Barrow representative.
Other Matters - GF2 Capacity Building Workshops
Workshops are free to attend and delivered by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) . There are a variety of options to suit your needs :
- Canada-Ontario Environmental Farm Plan (available now)
- Growing Your Farm Profits (available now)
- Biosecurity (available Fall/Winter 2013)
- Food Safety (available Fall/Winter 2013)
- Traceability (to be determined)
To register for a workshop visit www.ontariosoilcrop.org.