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Jonathan Giret thought he'd focus on nutrient management and safety when he set up his agrology consulting company. However, his experiences while applying for grants made him realize there was a big need for grant writing, too.

Agriculture, Farm Operation February 01, 2025

Agrologist, Accountant, Grant Writer?

Stop leaving millions on the table!

by Lorne McClinton

Are you planning to upgrade your irrigation system to improve its efficiency? There could be a grant to cover part of your costs. Are you wondering if cover crops will work on your farm? Perhaps there's funding to find out.

Every year governments, corporations, and NGOs offer millions of dollars in grants to individuals and businesses—including farmers—for environmental adaptation, research, and other uses. Depending on where you live, these can be as diverse as improving biosecurity, employee training, marketing farm products, energy efficiency, increasing processing capacity, reducing soil compaction, improving manure management, and helping species at risk. There's money, sometimes significant money, there for the asking. But there are so many different programs and funding agencies, who has time in their busy schedule to wade through all of them?

Jonathan Giret, CEO of Elite Agri Solutions in Glencoe, Ontario, started checking out grant programs when he was building his new broiler barn in 2016. Like many, he found navigating the application process to be incredibly frustrating. But as he worked his way through them he concluded that if he found the process difficult, others might too. So, he added grant writing to the list of services he offered at his agronomy services company.

“There are a lot of different grants, programs, and funding agencies out there," Giret says. "We've compiled a 66-page booklet of all the grants available that we send out to our clients every year. There are new ones coming out all the time. I was just looking over the 70-page Agri-technology Grant program guide to figure out what if anything in it applies to the producer. Right off the bat I spotted some for bioeconomy which would be something our clients with digesters should be interested in. There are ones for developing tools for precision ag. So, if you're the type of farmer interested in running field trials for their own sake, maybe you can get some funding for your time."

Scott Gillespie with Plants Dig Soil Consulting in Taber, Alberta, offers grant writing services for Albertan farmers too. He focuses on agronomy related grants. "Almost all the Federal government grants fall within the government's goals for climate solutions or for carbon removal," Gillespie says.

"Some farmers aren't interested in applying for them because they're philosophically opposed to having anything to do with those goals. But a lot of them are for good agricultural practices and things farmers might be really interested in. For example, there are ones for fencing and watering systems to set up rotational grazing. If you're thinking about establishing perennial forage, then the money's available to buy the seed and in some cases to even pay for seeding it. So, you might as well at least see what's out there."

While some farmers have the time and interest to wade into the grant process by themselves, it's often passed off to a consultant, Gillespie says. Programs often overlap and it's easy to get confused. For example, the Canadian government's On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) has overlap with their Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership (S-CAP). Once you get funding for a BMP (Best Management Practice) you can't go to the other program. Clearly making your plan before applying helps to figure out which one suits you best.

How grants work. "Grants are awarded on a cost share basis," Giret says. "You have to invest your own money in it, too. So, never use a grant to take on a project that doesn't make sense for your farm. Even with 35% funding, you're still funding 65% of a bad project if it doesn't."

Of course, there are no guaranties you will get a grant just because you've applied for one. Funding comes from a finite pool of money every year; once it's gone, it's gone.

Projects are evaluated on their merit on a first-come basis. So, Gillespie recommends getting your grant proposal in as early in the year as possible to maximize your odds of getting approved. Grants can't be applied retroactively, so any expenditures made before your grant is approved won't be reimbursed.

Keep in mind government grant programs are subject to the political winds of the day, Giret says. A change in government can mean changes in priorities and there is no guarantee a program one government puts in place will be continued by the next. ‡