Three Wayne County farmers have been named winners in a grant program aimed at supporting family farms, John Tart of Goldsboro, Valerie Barwick of Seven Springs, and Joshua and Kimberly Stroud of Mount Olive, were among 56 individual growers earning grants of between $1,000 and $8,000 from NC AgVentures Farm Grant Program.
The competitive grants – administered by the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, with funding provided through the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission – is awarded to innovative projects aimed at diversifying, expanding, or implementing new entrepreneurial plans for farm operations.
Tart Farms includes 100 acres of pecan trees. It is a century farm where they produce, and process the pecans from the tree to the consumer, cracking, cleaning, processing, sorting and packaging. With the grant they plan to add new processing equipment that makes processing more efficient and will enable them to process pecans for other farms.
Barwick is a fourth generation farmer. She raises row crops, cattle and hogs. With the grant they plan to purchase equipment to make the livestock operation more manageable and safer.
The Stroud farm recently transitioned from a small farm in Duplin County to 38 acres in Wayne County. They are first-generation farmers who use regenerative practices that heal the land and help their animals and food thrive naturally. They grow pork, chicken, and turkeys, and sell eggs. With the grant, they will purchase poultry process equipment to expand production.
The grant opportunity is available to Farmers in 46 counties – Alamance, Alexander, Alleghany, Anson, Ashe, Cabarrus, Caswell, Catawba, Chatham, Davidson, Davie, Durham, Edgecombe, Franklin, Forsyth, Gaston, Granville, Greene, Guilford, Halifax, Harnett, Iredell, Johnston, Lincoln, Martin, Mecklenburg, Nash, Northampton, Orange, Person, Pitt, Randolph, Rockingham, Rowan, Sampson, Stanly, Stokes, Surry, Union, Vance, Wake, Wayne, Wilson, Wilkes, Warren, and Yadkin.
The North Carolina General Assembly created the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission in 2000 to lessen the financial impact on farmers and tobacco-related businesses caused by the sharp decline of tobacco in the agricultural economy.
Cooperative Extension is an educational partnership of the state’s two land-grant universities, North Carolina State and North Carolina A&T State University, county governments, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Its mission is to deliver education and technology that enrich the lives, land, and economy of North Carolina.
