Among these are two research and education projects, an extension project and 20 producer-led projects.
In 2009, one technique shown at Ben Borja’s poultry farm on Tinian, can save chicken and turkey farmers up to 50 dollars per month in feed cost. Borja received $9,000 for alternative poultry production.
WSARE has four regional programs and outreach office work to advance maintainable improvements to the whole of American agriculture.
The program has been the go-to USDA small grants to farmers, ranchers, researchers and educators who want to develop improvements for farm profitability and sustainability, protect water and land, and revive communities.
To date, SARE has awarded 171 million dollars for more than 4,200 initiatives. The western part of the program’s goal is to make local farmers become more independent on producing food and reducing the cost of meat and animal feed imports in the island. The outreach has produced a library of how-to books, bulletins and online courses for producers on everything from clean energy farming to direct marketing to raising pastured poultry.
WSARE program has been giving grants to farmers, ranchers, researchers and educators to help develop and improve farm profitability, protect water and land and revitalize communities. It is also responsible for the western states and American Pacific, which is consisted of California, Hawaii, American Samoa and other more.
In the NMI, eight ranchers went on to succeed government grants letting them to apply rotation techniques and strategies. Furthermore, two commercial poultry operations have started using more sustainable grazing methods.
Pedro Arriola has received over $10,000 for the Demonstration of Feasibility of Solar Energy in Sustainable Aquaculture to Address High Costs in Conventionally Produced Electricity. The objective was to use solar energy for their tanks, with the use of solar energy they do not need to use CUC energy and those they get to save up hundreds of dollars in a month.
In the same year, John Hosono received almost $15,000 for the Maximizing Aquaculture Productivity with Sequential Polyculture Systems.
WSARE provides grants in several categories. Each of these grants is available at specific times of the year.
There are different kinds of grants, there is Research and Eduction Grants which deals with interdisciplinary approach which ranges from $30,000 to $150,000 and Producer Grants which typically run between $1,000 to $15,000 to conduct research, marketing and demonstration projects and share the results with other farmers and rancher. To learn more about the different kinds of grants, you can check online at wsare.usu.edu/grants
The mostly used grant in the CNMI is the Professional + Producer Grant.
To qualify for this grant, one has to be with a minimum of three producers, which are required to participate in the development, field trial and outreach of the project. Up to $50,000 per application is allowed. Each producer has to be an independent, separate operation. Any agricultural and/or natural resources professional in the western region may apply. The deadline for the grant is on December 03, 2010.
NMC-CREES animal scientist Dr. Allan Sabaldica is the coordinator and technical support for WSARE here in the CNMI. You may contact him at (670) 433-2576 or e-mail allans@nmcnet.edu
For more information about Western SARE, you can contact NMC-CREES at 234-5498 ext. 1707.
