Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
7 <br />2010 ToLacco Communities Reinvestment Fund <br />Community Application-Central Region <br />Please try to answer the questions in the space provided. You may attach additional pages as necessary,. but <br />please limit your total application packet to 17 pages. Be sure to type or print clearly., Please, read the <br />Guidelines and-the Producer Grant Evaluation Worksheet before completing this form. If you need further <br />information, contact RAFT-USA @ 919-542-1396, ext 205 or 919-259-4101. <br />1. Briefly describe your project. <br />The goal of this project is to enhance the capacity of a proven new farmer training program to <br />provide improved educational opportunities that improve entrepreneurship for new farmers. <br />This project will enable new and diversifying farmers in tobacco-dependent, economically <br />distressed, and rural communities in a core 6-county area of the Piedmont Region of North <br />Carolina to pilot and develop new or alternative farm-based enterprises. In addition, through <br />periodic workshops and on-farm toursf farmers from a wider radius from the Hurdle Mills site <br />would also beneft from activities funded by this project. This larger 14-county region includes <br />9,890 farms, representing ~20 percent of NC farms and 35,210 former-or current tobacco <br />acres, equivalent to 21 % of NC tobacco acreage. <br />The PLANT @ Breeze Farm Enterprise workshop series- consists of intensive 3-hour sessions <br />held each Wednesday night for eight weeks in January and February. Local successful <br />farmers are present at each workshop and share their diverse experiences related to that <br />evening's topic. Following the workshop series, participants can-submit a business plan-and <br />crop plan for review input by their peers. New farmers with .adequate business plans can tease. <br />growing area on an annual basis at the Breeze Farm for horticultural or livestock production. A <br />recent collaboration with Natural Resources Conservation Service for a demonstration site on <br />rotational grazing with fencing and livestock watering improvements wi11 now allow grazing <br />livestock apprentice farmers to participate in the PLANT program. Currently, the- program <br />includes a high level of diversity among its participants and apprentice farmers, and has been <br />referred- to as a `government program that works'. <br />This project will also enhance the capacity-of the farm in-cubatorto serve new innovative <br />farmers by increasing available water for irrigation with the purchase of equipment dedicated to <br />the farm incubator project. In addition, a portion of the request will support a.mentor farmer to <br />assist with activities of the PLANT program to better serve apprentice farmers and workshop <br />participants. -Program offe-rings will be disseminated through the Cooperative Extension <br />network, and local and regional- grower listservs. <br />2.What is your goal for the project? If you are successful, how will the project contribute to <br />keeping farmers sustainably employed on the farm? <br />The PLANT @ Breeze Farm Enterprise Incubator will use funds provided by this project to <br />enhance the capacity of the program to serve diversifying and new farmers. Of greatest <br />importance is increasing water availability through the creation of a new well or pond that will <br />allow for development of new and desperately needed, incubator growing plots. In addition, <br />funds are requested for cost-sharing on the purchase a 35-hp tractor and other specialized <br />equipment for the exclusive use of the PLANT Farm Enterprise Incubator. During the past <br />Page 6 of 19 <br />