ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — In celebration of Earth Week, the New York State Commissioner of Agriculture visited Western New York to announce the availability of grant funds for climate-resilient farming.

Commissioner Richard Bell announced that $28.75 million is being made available to farmers through the Climate Resilient Farming Grant for 2024. He announced the Providence Farm Collective in Orchard Park. 

What You Need To Know

  • The New York State Commissioner of Agriculture visited Western New York to announce the availability of grant funds for climate-resilient farming

  • Providence Farm Collective received money last year 

  • Those funds were designated to the installation of irrigation infrastructure and a reservoir

“It enables farmers to do the right thing,” said Ball. “To think about how they deal with changing and the changes in the climate. We’re seeing changes in the climate.”

Providence Farm Collective is a 37-acre nonprofit that cultivates community and empowers refugees, immigrants, BIPOC and low-income families. With funds from last year’s Climate Resilient Farming Grant, farm directors said they are working on installing irrigation and a reservoir to combat drought issues.

“When a crop takes six weeks to produce, predicting the weather out three to five days in Buffalo, N.Y. is pretty difficult. So if we have a system where we know that we can provide everything that the crop needs, we will have a crop to harvest,” said Allen Young, water quality technician at Erie County Soil and Water Conservation District. 

“This project here supports a lot of communities, especially the new Americans who are just, they don’t know where to go, they don’t know how to get the land for farming,” said Mo Mberwa, farm mentor at Providence Farm Collective.

The funds also helped the nonprofit afford to implement sustainable farming practices like growing cover crops, intercropping, crop rotation, using high tunnels to extend the growing season, drip-line irrigation and more.