The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD has announced that his Department has issued a request for tender, under the CEDRA Rural Innovation and Development Fund, for two LOTS seeking (a) service providers with the vision and capability to develop a social farming network and (b) a substantial social farming model project. Both successful responses will be awarded a contract of one year.

Minister Creed said “I am pleased to announce my Department has issued this request for tender. Social farming is an exciting venture that has many benefits. It’s an initiative which fosters inclusion amongst disadvantaged groups and allows participants build self-esteem and improve health and well-being. When operating from a working family farm, these initiatives support farm diversification and help farmers connect with the wider community.”

A dedicated fund of up to €400,000 has been made available in 2016 to fund the development and running of a social farming network. A separate dedicated fund of €200,000 has been made available in 2016 to fund the development and running of a substantial social farming model project. Both contracts will run for a year and it is expected that these projects should be ready to start in early Autumn.

The tender has been posted on the eTenders website www.etenders.gov.ie with a closing date of 31 August 2016.

Note to editors

Social farming is 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.

These operations are run in a number of settings ranging from working family farms, local community initiatives through to more institutional frameworks. Social farming is widely practiced across Europe with almost 1,000 social farms in the Netherlands, 700 in Italy, 450 in Norway and 300 in Belgium.

A separate tender response is required for each LOT submitted. A tenderer may be successful in LOT1 or LOT 2 or in both LOTS.

A number of interested parties have already expressed an interest in this tender and the successful tenderer for each project will be the person or consortium which best meet its stated objectives on a competitive economically advantageous basis.

View this Press Release as a PDF: DAFMPR 87/2016 (pdf 366Kb) 

Date Released: 22 July 2016