As a part of the economic recovery from COVID-19, the Ministry of Agriculture has developed a new pilot called the Small Farm Business Acceleration Program to support the growth of small and new farm businesses through:
- Improving the business planning skills of small and new farmers by supporting business plan coaching; and
- Accelerating the revenue growth of small and new farm businesses by providing cost-share funding for commercial farm infrastructure and equipment.
The pilot program is intended for farm business entities producing agricultural products grown in B.C. with the intent to grow their sales and increase their profitability. For the purpose of the pilot, a small farm is defined as those with a total annual gross revenue of less than $60,000 in the last two years.
A business plan is required to support the cost-share funding for commercial farm infrastructure and equipment. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to ensure their business plan is up to date and, where additional support is required, eligible applicants can access funding for Business Plan Coaching from a Qualified Business Consultant through the B.C. Agri-Business Planning Program.
The application intake will open on December 7, 2020.
Additional program information will be posted in the upcoming weeks on the Ministry website. You or others that you know who may be interested in this pilot program can sign up for the AgriService BC bulletin to be notified by email when more information is available.
