A call is out for available land as the Central Alberta Growing Project in support of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank is planning for their 22nd charity crop.
 
Doug Maas with the group says they are looking for some land within Lacombe County either by donation, or they are willing to pay cash rent “ideally we would have a quarter section, but last year we had 120 acres, some years we’ve had 140, so we’re grateful for whatever we can arrange. The crop depends on the rotation for the field, so whatever the farmer wants us to grow to meet that rotation, that’s what we’ll do”.

Maas says they like to plant their crop in different parts of the County each year “sometimes we’re east of Highway 2, sometimes we’re west of Highway 2 throughout Lacombe County, we find this way we can get different farmers involved each year, it helps us with the exposure for the project and we’re not relying on the same farmers to do all the work and donate their time and machinery each year”.

The group is coming off their 2nd best crop ever last year, which despite a late harvest in November, brought in over $100,000 and when matched 4:1 by the Canadian government the group was able to contribute $520,000 to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

Those dollars are used for emergency food aid and sustainable agriculture projects in countries like South Sudan, Iraq, Haiti, Malawi, Kenya and Ethiopia.

If you have some land that may work for their project, call Doug Maas at 403-782-1860.