€820,000 fund for tourism and social farming projects
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has announced funding of €370,000 for at least three social farming model projects which can demonstrate a national benefit, and €450,000 for at least nine projects supporting agri-food tourism initiatives (which may also include rural markets).
Social farming is defined by the department as the practice of offering, on a voluntary basis, farming and horticultural participation in a farming environment as a choice to people who avail of a range of therapeutic day support services.
It says agri-food tourism is an activity or activities in rural areas to visit areas of well-known agricultural produce and to sample and taste the local or regional produce or cuisine.
As part of a competitive public procurement procedure, requests for tenders have been published for both on the eTenders website and the Official Journal of the European Union (ID No. 119737 for social farming model projects support, and ID No. 119730 for agri-food tourism project support).
For those applying, site registration for eTenders will be necessary at the supplier registration section of the www.etenders.gov.ie website.
The deadline for submission of tenders is 12 noon, July 26, 2017.
Tenders will be assessed through a competitive process.
