RAFI-USA’s Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund will make cost-share demonstration grants to farmers, farm organizations, and community groups in Alamance, Bladen, Caswell, Chatham, Columbus, Cumberland, Durham, Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Johnston, Lee, Montgomery, Moore, Nash, Orange, Person, Randolph, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, Vance, Wake, Warren, and Wilson counties.
Cost-share support of up to $10,000 will be awarded to individual producers and support of up to $30,000 will be awarded to collaborative farmer efforts. Demonstration grants will be awarded through a competitive selection process. Grants will be awarded to innovative projects which show farmers a new direction or opportunity. Priority will be given to projects that benefit farmers who had income from tobacco and to projects that create an opportunity for a new generation of farmers.
Deadline for applications is November 11, 2009. Funds will be available to farmers in February 2010. For complete eligibility requirements and guidelines, visit RAFI-USA’s website at: www.rafiusa.org
For more information or to discuss potential project ideas contact:
Keith Ellis; 919-259-4101; keith@rafiusa.org , or call (919)542-1396, ext.205 .
RAFI-USA is a private, non-profit organization based in Pittsboro, North Carolina. RAFI cultivates markets, policies and communities that support thriving, socially just and environmentally sound family farms.
The 2008 Spring Workshops were a success. We held three no-till organic production workshops in May and early June on farms in Mt. Ulla, Tyner, and Pantego. The cover crop trials for rolling and no-till planting of corn and soybeans were highlighted at each farm. Initial results from those trials are below in this newsletter. We also had two workshops on organic and hard wheat production in Eagle Springs (on Billy Carter’s Farm) and in Waynesville, NC. At both locations, Dr. David Marshall planted one of his hard wheat variety trials. We toured the trials, learned about hard wheat varieties, and talked about organic wheat production and the possibility of a “local” or “NC-grown” bread flour as Dr. Marshall has developed some hard wheat varieties that perform well in the state. Two new varieties from these trials will be released this summer: Appalachian White (a hard white wheat) and Nu East (a hard red wheat). These varieties are joining TAM-303 released two years ago.
NC Organic Crop Conference 2010
We are excited that the first annual Organic Crop Conference will be held jointly at the ___ Conference Center in New Bern with the Joint Corn, Small Grain, and Soybean Growers Conference on January , 2010. The Organic Crop Conference will be geared towards production and marketing issues of certified organic tobacco, grain, dairy, and large-scale vegetable farms. We are in the planning stages of this conference and really need feedback and participation from organic growers on speakers, topics, meetings, and format. Please contact the planning committee chairs, Mary Wilks (crop consultant) or Mac Gibbs (Hyde County Extension Director), if you wish to participate on the planning committee or if you wish to have any input in the conference agenda. Thank you very much for your help!
Mary Wilks; Email: marytwilks@yahoo.com;
Mac Gibbs; Email: Malcolm_gibbs@ncsu.edu; Phone: 252-926-4488
