Agriculture Resilience and Recovery Program funding
NewsThe Victorian Government has announced new funding opportunities to support agriculture and food supply chain businesses during the pandemic.
This $5.2 million Agriculture Resilience and Recovery Program (ARRP) will provide funding support to help businesses and communities adapt to COVID-19 workforce requirements and ongoing pressures, including:
- On-farm infrastructure
- Accommodation
- Business upgrades or new facilities, and
- COVIDSafe support services for the agricultural workforce.
Individual grants of $10,000 – $300,000 will be available to primary producer businesses, food processing businesses, local governments, not for profit community organisations, or accommodation providers.
Grants will only be offered for up to 50 per cent of the total project costs. However, applications made by Local Government Authorities and not for profit organisations may cover the total project costs.
There are three funding streams available:
- The Business Resilience and Recovery stream, for adapting business operations to mitigate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on production.
- The Place-based Worker Support stream, for attracting and retaining workers by addressing COVIDSafe worker accommodation shortages.
- The Training and Education stream, for businesses to give workers access to information and services to support COVIDSafe practices.
With expense being one barrier to implementing effective COVIDSafe workplace practice, it is hoped that this timely funding boost will support Victorian agriculture and food production employers in making critical changes ahead of the harvest season.
Applications can be made until 31 December 2021 or until the available funds are spent, whichever comes first.
For the full details including eligibility guidelines, visit the Rural Finance website.
