From growing herbs for tea to raising livestock, the Ignatius Jesuit Centre (IJC) is helping small growers and farmers cultivate their ideas through its annual farmland rental program.
“We have this gift of land and we are wanting to make it available for the community to be actively involved in it, whether it's at a garden scale or an entrepreneurial scale," said Heather Lekx, farm manager at IJC about the farmland rentals program.
“So the request for proposals is for folks who are too big for the community gardens, but they're not going out to buy a property for a variety of reasons."
The program accepts requests for proposals from individuals, groups, organizations and enterprises focusing on agriculture, education or research. Currently, Ignatius farms is reviewing applications for the 2022 season.
This year, applicants can apply to rent plots of five acres or less, or quarter-acre sections for agricultural businesses. Lekx mentions focusing on small plots has been something IJC has been doing for the past five years to address access to land.
“We wanted to be able to have spaces for folks that are not looking for 50 acres, they're not looking for 30 acres, they're looking for something smaller about the size of their business," said Lekx, "and it generally tended to be half an acre, or a quarter of an acre just beyond the community garden scale for intensive horticultural purposes, and up to five acres."
In a time when there are fewer opportunities to own land for food production, Lekx mentions IJC is providing access for small growers and farmers through its farmland rental program.
The farmland rental program started back in 2005 after IJC stopped raising its own livestock and began renting the land to individuals.
"We started looking at our patchwork of fields and thinking about it in the way of how can we make this precious gift of land more available to the community that otherwise wouldn't have access and is able to launch their business or their social enterprise, or their agency, that they couldn't do without land access," said Lekx. "With that experience of renting, we realized that there was this huge chasm of folks wanting to access this land and who could even jump into those larger spaces successfully."
Besides land size, Ignatius realized another concern for applicants was access to water. Since then, Lekx said they have received grants from Farm Credit Canada to help with digging out a well and a grant from the Urban Agricultural Challenge to dig up the trenches to redirect water to community garden plots. Soon, Lekx said IJC is planning to do a fundraising campaign to help raise money for building the well.
“We knew our community gardeners were growing, but within that there were gardeners who were wanting more space, they wanted more space with water, and we just didn't have the water accessibility,” said Lekx.
In the past, Lekx mentions the program has seen herbalists, small businesses and past research groups rent plots for different purposes. More recently, Lekx said a local business called the Origin of Native Plants, is entering its third year renting land from IJC and is seeing great success.
For this program, Ignatius is looking for candidates that have previous experience, but the organization also provides additional training through programming. Sometimes, Lekx said they have had situations where someone participating in programs, like its new farmers training program, go on to rent a plot.
"One of the other elements is we have our new farmer training program and we have close relationships with other farming programs," said Lekx about the educational opportunities at IJC, "so if people are wanting to pick up skills, we actually might know someone who can help them or are leading a presentation in collaboration with another program."
Selected applicants will be able to start farmland tenancy in the spring. While the proposal deadline passed on Jan. 20, interested residents who apply after this date may still be eligible for a plot in late summer, depending on how the application may benefit other projects at that point.
More information about the farm rental program can be found at ignatiusguelph.ca.
