Alberta farmers seeking to make grain dryer improvements will have access to funding through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
The Efficient Grain Dryer Program is designed to help cover costs for improvements to grain dryers with an eye on energy efficiency. The program is retroactive to April 1, 2018, and $2 million has been earmarked for farmers. Program funding will be 50 percent of eligible expenses.
Details available through CAP indicate the program will only fund equipment that shows “a significant energy improvement over standard practice.”
It can include factory options, new equipment or retrofits on existing equipment.
To be eligible, an applicant must be an active Alberta producer with a current Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) certificate or letter of completion, or be currently working on an EFP and due to receive a certificate before the end of the project term. An EFP completed before 2008 is not acceptable and would have to be renewed before the applicant would be eligible.
Also eligible are active Alberta producers who submitted applications under the Farm Energy and Agri-Processing Program (FEAP) for grain dryer components but did not receive funding.
CAP information warns that funding is not guaranteed until an application is approved and applications will be processed on a first come, first served basis.
More information is available at cap.alberta.ca/CAP/program/EFFICIENT_GRAIN_DRYER.
A December Alberta crop report estimated that 32 percent of crops in the Peace region remained in the field due to adverse harvest conditions. About 13 percent of crops in the northeast, seven percent in the northwest and two percent in the south were in the same predicament.
“Last harvest was one of the toughest for Alberta farmers,” said Alberta Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen.
“Poor weather, trade irritants, rail strikes and a carbon tax have all hurt farmers through no fault of their own. This new program will help farmers remain competitive and keep producing the best high-quality food in the world.”
Adrienne South, press secretary to Dreeshen, further advised that “the program will be retroactive back to April 1, 2018, to accommodate nearly 100 applicants who have been waiting since that time and for those who may not have known about the program and purchased eligible equipment in the last two years. This is a new program, not a direct replacement of the FEAP program.”
