RAFI to give $2 million in grants to NC farmers in 2010 » Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund

August 3, 2010

CONTACT:    Linda S. Shaw, Executive Director, linda@rafiusa.org
                                                                        Joe Schroeder, Program Director, joe@rafiusa.org
                                                                        (919) 542-1396 x203 or x208

RAFI TO GIVE $2 MILLION IN GRANTS TO NC FARMERS IN 2011

PITTTSBORO, NC. – The Rural Advancement Foundation International – USA will offer almost $2 million in grants to North Carolina farmers in 2011. The grants will be supported by the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission and the Family Farm Innovation Fund.

Governor Beverly Purdue announced the additional funding at the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center yesterday.

“[The Family Farm Innovation Fund] builds on the legacy of innovation in North Carolina’s family farms, and it is another step forward in our JobsNOW economic recovery efforts,” Perdue said.

RAFI’s grant program, the Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund, offers awards of up to $10,000 for individual producers and up to $30,000 for collaborative farmer projects.

The program funds projects that demonstrate innovative opportunities in production, processing and marketing or that show new ways of using obsolete farm equipment or facilities.

Over the first ten years of the program, just over $1 million in grants created or preserved 958 jobs and led to $5.1 million in additional farmer income.

“RAFI is honored to partner with Governor Perdue, the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, and the Rural Center to support North Carolina farmers and strengthen rural communities,” said Linda Shaw, RAFI’s executive director.

““RAFI has demonstrated that investment in agricultural entrepreneurs creates jobs, increases income, and promotes rural economic development,” Shaw said.

With these modest but critical grants, farmers are accessing emerging markets, processing products on-farm, giving new life to old tobacco barns and poultry houses, and generating additional jobs and markets for their rural neighbors.

Farmers look to each other as their primary source of ideas, so supporting entrepreneurial farmers brings new resources to the whole farm community. Many grantees with successful enterprises are also taking the lead in collaborating with others to meet market demands.

In Greene County, successful freshwater prawn producer Charlene Jacobs is the guiding force behind the American Prawn Cooperative, which used its funding to acquire equipment for handling and transport of live prawn from grantee farms to a holding and processing facility.

In 2009, Lincoln County farmer Brent Brown received an individual grant to enhance the marketability of his blackberries. In 2010, Brown organized 15 farmers for a community project that processes otherwise unmarketable berries for sale to wineries and jam and jelly companies.

RAFI awarded 120 grants in 2010 for enterprises including piloting pomegranate-growing for North Carolina producers, growing mushrooms with geothermal energy, and converting tobacco greenhouses for vegetable production.

“RAFI was able to fund only 25 percent of the over 450 applications received for 2010,” said Shaw. “We are thrilled that RAFI will be able to help even more farmers as a result of this funding.”

Grant applications for the 2011 funding cycle and a schedule of workshops for prospective applicants are available now at www.ncfarmgrants.org.

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Page Updated 07.03.2010