OFCAF Update: One Month In!
RDAR opened the On-Farm Climate Action Fund program to applications on August 4th, 2022. It has been a little over a month and the program has already started to approve applications from producers. This new program is designed to will help producers offset a large proportion of costs, making it easier to try a new management practices on farm such as rotational grazing, cover cropping or nitrogen management.
Applications
To reflect on OFCAF’s first month in operation, Program Manager Fiona Briody says that the program is seeing a steady flow of applications coming in across all three activity categories: Nitrogen management, rotational grazing and cover crops. She also noted that “there is no one area that has the strongest interest”. This is good news for Alberta farm operations, OFCAF funding will help producers approve, test and build diverse projects to help tackle climate change.
OFCAF 2022 Application Deadline
A reminder, the deadline to submit your 2022 OFCAF application is Monday November 7th, 2022 at 4:30 pm MST. Applications for OFCAF 2023 will open in early February and the OFCAF program operating date has been extended out to June 2024.
Application Approvals
One month in OFCAF has already started to notify producers of their approval status. To date 5 applications have been approved in ARGO, RDAR’s online grant management system. 20 applications are currently being processed and nearly 200 applications are currently in progress in ARGO.
What Producers are Saying about OFCAF
Producer feedback on the OFCAF program has been largely positive. A number of applicants have said OFACF funding will enable them to start projects on their farm that they have been wanting to do for a number of years.
With OFCAF funding to offset the financial cost of making changes on farm, many producers have said that they are able to take on projects that will make a real difference to how their farm operates in the near future
OFCAF Webinars
in early August , the OFCAF team hosted a series of webinars designed to give a program overview to
farmers, ranchers and the general public. The OFCAF team presented 6 live webinars that were attended by over 400 participants! This webinar presentation series provided broad information about the climate change program and helped answer producer questions to support the application process.
Did you miss out on attending an OFCAF Overviews webinar? We’ve got you covered. RDAR has uploaded a pre recorded webinar to the OFCAF website, and the webinar presentation slides are now available for download at rdar.ca/ofcaf.
Funding Outlook
OFCAF Program Manager Fiona Briody says that there are plenty of OFCAF funds available to producers, and she encourages interested farmers and ranchers to review the program website and keep those applications coming!
Questions about OFCAF: If you have any questions, please reach out to ofcaf.bmp@rdar.ca
