September 17, 2019 | Montpelier, VT – The Vermont Farm & Forest Viability Program,
, a program of the VT Housing & Conservation Board, has grant funds available for on-farm capital improvement projects that have a positive impact on water quality. Eligible farmers can apply for a Water Quality Grant, which provides $5,000 to $40,000 in funding. Matching funds are required and may include federal or state grants as well as cash, loans, or labor. Application deadlines are November 8, 2019 and February 7, 2020.
The past year has been a historic and unrelenting weather crisis for Vermont farmers, with almost an additional 10 inches of precipitation in the past year (a 28% increase over the past 365 day historic average). Farmers had snow-covered ground which did not thaw from November of 2018 through late May 2019 when they were then hit with a spring that never quite dried out. Crops were planted late in spring 2019 and recent rainfall has resulted in record flooding this fall as soon as the corn came off the ground. Yet again, in a second unprecedented year in a row, very early season and persistent snows in November 2019 are again covering fields and creating a weather crisis for farming in Vermont.
A group of Addison County students and their instructors have been awarded a prestigious $10,000 grant to refine their invention that allows maple sugar farmers to measure the flow of sap in their lines. The team, which spent the last four years working on the project at the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center, received word of the award late last month. The InvenTeams grant to continue their work was from the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.