Federal Member for Wright, Scott Buchholz has announced the Australian Government has opened grants for farmers under the Smart Farms Small Grants program.
Mr Buchholz said funding of up to $100,000 was available to farmers in Wright, to support their natural resource management efforts.
“This has been a very popular program that has a mutual benefit, it provides real bang for buck when it comes to delivering benefits for farms, the environment and local communities,” Mr Buchholz said.
“Here in Wright, we have some of the best farmers in the country, producing the best food in the world, across the Lockyer Valley and in the Scenic Rim, particularly in the Fassifern Valley.
“But our farmers in Wright aren’t just good at producing world class produce, they are also doing fantastic work to support our local environment, in fact they are our greatest environmental managers.
“They look after their land, they remove the invasive weeds and pests, they work hard to reduce soil erosion and they understand the environments they’re working in.
“Through these grants we can give our farmers, our growers a helping hand to adopt the next generation of sustainable farming practices, not only to benefit the environment but their production,” Mr Buchholz said.
There is $6.5 million available under this round of Smart Farms Small Grants to support one- to two-year projects that boost best practice sustainable farming awareness, skills and capacity.
Mr Buchholz said the grants would fund projects across a range of areas such as pest control, vegetation management, farm input efficiency, market management, and the use of new technologies in agriculture.
“Not all projects have to be large scale, with grants between $5,000 and $100,000 available. I urge anyone interested to check out the guidelines and apply,” Mr Buchholz said.
Smart Farms Small Grants is a sustainable agriculture element of the National Landcare Program (NLP). The Australian Government is investing more than $1 billion towards the second phase of the NLP from 2018-2023.
For more information and to apply, visit the Community Grants Hub https://www.communitygrants.gov.au/grants
Ends.
Further information:
- Smart Farms Small Grants support projects that address a range of natural resource management issues including soil health, pest and weed management, farm production efficiency, Indigenous involvement, climate and market risk and use of new technologies to improve sustainable practices.
- Projects may be delivered locally, regionally and multi-regionally and must be completed by 30 June 2023.
- A total of $43.5 million is available for Smart Farms Small Grants from 2017–18 to 2022–23.
- Smart Farms Small Grants fund short-term projects that build the capacity of farmers, fishers and foresters to adopt best practice natural resource management.
- Up to $6.5 million is available for Round 4, with funding of between $5,000 and $100,000 (GST exclusive) for each grant.
- Applications open 21 August 2020 and close 11pm AEDT on 9 October 2020.
Pictured: Scott Buchholz on a visit to Sutton Farms.