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21 Projects in Oxford to Benefit from Agriculture Funding Support

Governments Supporting Economic Recovery of Ontario Farmers

Over 600 Projects to Support Ontario’s Economic Recovery in Three Priority Areas including 21 projects in Oxford

WOODSTOCK — The Governments of Ontario and Canada are investing $7.3 million through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to help support farmers and agri-food businesses. The investment will fund projects in priority areas that increase food safety, accelerate sector innovation and help farmers bring new products to market to grow their businesses.

“We’ve got 21 projects in Oxford that will receive total funding of over $361,000 under this program,” said Ernie Hardeman, MPP for Oxford. “It’s great to see our government continue to invest in the agriculture sector and farmers to help them create jobs, grow their businesses and produce more of the safe, quality food our province is known for.”

This funding supports more than 600 cost-shared projects that strengthen Ontario’s agri-food sector by helping eligible farmers in over 270 communities across the province to continue producing safe, high quality food in Ontario.

“Supporting Ontario’s farmers and agri-food businesses to be more competitive by increasing their ability to innovate is key to strengthening the agri-food sector,” said the Honourable Lisa Thompson, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister. “Building resiliency within our agri-food sector will help keep our province’s food supply strong and more able to adapt to challenges in the future.”

Positive outcomes of projects funded under this intake include:

  • Improvement of food safety systems on farms to meet or exceed national and international certification standards;
  • Development of products that will open new sales markets for farm businesses for example, a new organic pepper product to expand markets or developing maple butter as a new, value-added farm product;
  • Planting cover crops to improve soil health and reduce soil erosion losses over winter;
  • Increasing preventative measures to help reduce pest damage at greenhouse operations; and
  • Upgrades to animal-handling equipment to improve animal welfare and reduce disease transmission on livestock farms.

Since June 2018, both the federal and provincial governments have committed over $100 million in cost-share support to more than 5,000 projects through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to help eligible Ontario farmers, processors, businesses and sector organizations innovate and grow.