CANADA – Ontario is giving a Canadian$ 282,000 (US$225364.53) financial boost to over 20 Northumberland-Peterborough South, a federal electoral district in Ontario, farming and agri-food projects to aid in augmenting on-farm practices in the province.
This local investment is part of an Ontario-Canada Canadian$7.3-million (US$ 5833904.50) shared investment through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, which is aimed at supporting farmers and agri-food businesses in priority areas.
“It’s about supporting growth at the farm level, which will have positive impacts across Ontario’s agri-food sector. 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,” said Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP), David Piccini.
The Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a five-year, CA$3-billion(US$2,397,495,000) investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments to reinforce the agriculture and agri-food sector, ensuring continued innovation, growth and prosperity. This commitment includes a reported Canadian$2 -billion (US$ 1,598,330,000) for programs that are cost-shared by the federal, provincial and territorial governments, and are designed and delivered by provinces and territories.
According to a recent release from the MPP’s office, this funding will support more than 600 cost-shared projects, helping farmers in 270-plus communities to continue producing safe, high-quality food.
Piccini informed that of the 600-plus projects, 23 are in the local riding.
As reported by Local Northumberland News, the projects will be situated at Keene, Gores Landing, Norwood, Baltimore, Warkworth, Cobourg, Hastings and Newcastle.
According to the province, benefits will include improvement of food safety systems on farms to meet or exceed national and international certification standards.
It will also steer the development of products that will open new sales markets for farm businesses; for example, a new organic pepper product to expand markets, or development of maple butter as a new, value-added farm product.
Further it will upsurge precautionary measures to help diminish pest damage at greenhouse operations and enhance upgrades to animal-handling equipment to improve animal welfare and reduce disease transmission on livestock farms.
Since mid-2018, the federal and provincial governments have committed more than Canadian$100 million(US$79,916,500) in cost-share support to more than 5,000 Ontario projects through the partnership.
The Ontario agri-food sector supports more than 860,000 jobs province wide, and contributes more than Canadian$47.3 billion (US$37,800,504,500) annually to the economy.
