ONTARIO – The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) will be providing funding to eligible Ontario agricultural and horticultural societies in 2021.

The money is meant to help protect and support these societies through the next phase of the COVID-19 economic recovery.

Base support funding provides a one-time payment to assist continued delivery of agricultural and horticultural education across the province.

Hardship funding is linked to reported gate receipts from 2019, as long as criteria are met.

This one-time payment will be automatically issued to all eligible societies by March 31.

Participating agricultural societies must file an attestation document to OMAFRA by Feb. 8. For more information contact the Agricultural Information Contact Centre via Email at ag.info.omafra@ontario.ca.