This year, nine Manitoba businesses have received more than $600,000 to help farmers change and adapt to life without the Crow Benefit grain transportation subsidy.
And the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council hopes more organizations will come forward with innovative ideas.
At its first meeting March 16, the council celebrated its progress in helping farmers change from the traditional way of doing business, said executive director Michele Rogalsky.
The council has a $4.37 million grant from the Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development Fund that it must distribute by 2000.
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Rogalsky said her phone has started to “ring off the hook” as more Manitobans become aware of the funding.
The council previously announced funding for projects involving black hog production, woodlot forestry, hay processing, wheat processing and fruit research.
It recently announced it will give:
- More than $92,000 to the Ostrich Products Marketing Co-operative, a new generation co-op in the province.
- $100,000 to Manitoba Pork toward the network hog production company it is setting up with N.M. Paterson and Sons Ltd.
- $10,700 to the Agri-Food Network for a study of Manitobans with anxious or apathetic attitudes toward agriculture.
- $19,000 to the National Sunflower Association of Canada, a new commodity group.
Rogalsky said the next deadlines for project ideas are March 31 and June 30.
The council also will distribute $1.9 million for research under the Canada Agri-Infrastructure Program.
Rogalsky said the council will work closely with the new agricultural research foundation recently set up by the provincial and federal governments.
