Funding Opportunity for Farmers in Massachusetts and Vermont

Here's good news from Farm Aid partner The Carrot Project. The Strolling of the Heifers Microloan Fund for New England Farmers and the MassDevelopment/Strolling of the Heifers Small Farm Loan Program will be accepting pre-qualified applications through November 5, 2010, for loans of $15,000 or less.

The mission of the fund is to address the difficulty that some New England farmers have in obtaining credit for projects that improve their operations and increase their income, as well as for emergency needs.

Applicants must live in Massachusetts or Vermont and pre-qualify.

Eligibility

• Farms with 250 or fewer acres in active production
• Annual gross revenue of $250,000 or less
• Primary focus on farms that use sustainable or organic methods (or are moving toward them)
• Marketing at least a portion of their products to local markets.
• Acceptable purposes for the loans are: capital investments and other expenses that help improve efficiency or quality, or that expand production and sales; repairs necessary to maintain farm operations; short-term operating needs such as inventory, supplies, or labor; and emergency funds to deal with business interruptions due to fire, natural disasters, or other unforeseeable events.

There are additional deadlines in January and March of 2011.

For more information, please click here or contact Dorothy Suput at 617-666-9637 or at dsuput@thecarrotproject.org.