Joins the Providence Farm Collective to Highlight the Farm’s Recent Climate Resilient Farming Grant Project and its Environmentally Sustainable Farming Practices
WHAT: The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Commissioner will announce a major funding opportunity for New York’s farmers to help offset the effects of climate change on farms.
Providence Farm Collective, a recipient of the State’s Climate Resilient Farming Grant program in 2023, will highlight its’ awarded project for an irrigation water management system and will share its environmentally sustainable farming practices, which include growing cover crops, intercropping, and crop rotation for soil health, using high tunnels to extend the growing season, on-farm composting production, drip-line irrigation and water conservation practices, organic farming practices and pest management, and protecting its 37-acre home forever as farmland with an agricultural conservation easement — all with the impact of increasing on-farm resiliency to climate change.
WHEN: Wednesday, April 24, 11 a.m.
WHERE: Providence Farm Collective, 5701 Burton Rd, Orchard Park, NY 14127
WHO: Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball Kristin M. Heltman-Weiss, Providence Farm Collective President & Executive Director Hamadi Ali, Markets Manager and founder of the Somali Bantu Community Farm and Providence Farm Collective
Mahamud Mberwa, Farm Mentor, Providence Farm Collective
Mark Gaston, District Field Manager, Erie County Soil and Water District
MORE: Providence Farm Collective is a non-profit that offers grassroots farm programs aimed at meeting the expressed needs of and empowering refugee, immigrant, BIPOC, and low-income communities. It cultivates farmer-led and community-rooted agriculture and food systems to actualize the rights of under-resourced peoples and ensure just and equitable access to food and farmland. PFC has its roots in the Somali Bantu Community Farm, a three-year pilot project. The pilot explored the challenges and opportunities of addressing fresh food insecurity and farmland inequity. PFC supports under-resourced farmers in Western New York needing access to clean, rural farmland, farming and business education, technical assistance, access to markets and the opportunity to farm for income. For more information, visit www.providencefarmcollective.org
The Climate Resilient Farming Grant program is funding by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, through the Environmental Protection Fund. Part of the State’s Agricultural Environmental Management (AEM) framework, the program helps farms reduce their operational impact on the environment and address the impacts of extreme weather events resulting from climate change, such as floods and droughts. Awarded projects help New York’s farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigate water and soil quality concerns, and increase on-farm resiliency to climate change.
