Roy Ballard, Purdue Extension agriculture and natural resources educator in Hancock County, and Joan Fulton, professor of agricultural economics, will be among three presenters during the free “Funding Opportunities for Farmers and Others” webinar 14 October from 10 a.m. to noon EDT.

Ballard will discuss possibilities for North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture, Research and Education partnership grants, and Fulton will share tips on how to write a grant proposal.

Also presenting will be Joan Benjamin, NCR-SARE associate regional coordinator, who will explain SARE farmer rancher and youth educator grant programs.

NCR-SARE now has four open calls for proposals that have the potential to offer much-needed funding for education and research related to the broad topic of sustainable agriculture.

"Each of these grants can provide thousands of dollars to successful applicants to advance their research and educational outreach or efforts to educate youth about some aspect of sustainable agriculture," Ballard said.

"Some farmers may wish to compare new ways of streamlining some farm task, reducing environmental impact, growing a new crop, conducting research or an educational program, learning more about a particular issue, becoming more energy efficient, adding value to a raw farm product or developing a local food system."

The webinar will be streamed live at https://gomeet.itap.purdue.edu/fff14/. It is recommended that participants log in ahead of time to assess their connection and to make sure they have downloaded any software necessary for viewing.

The session will be recorded and made available online for later use.

For more information on how to participate in the webinar, contact Ballard, who also is state SARE coordinator, at 317-462-1113 or by email at [email protected].