Grants available to South Staffs farmers
A Staffordshire business is working alongside South Staffs Water to promote its grant initiative to support farmers within the catchment area.
The initiative aims to make future water efficiency and land and drought management activities more efficient, environmentally aware, and profitable for farmers and help them financially towards capital investment and protecting waterways.
Paul Owen, the Commercial Manager at Tuffa UK in Uttoxeter, said: “As soon as we became aware of this incredible initiative, we had to reach out to South Staffs Water to see how best we could support both the initiative and our farmers."
Tuffa has a well-established and respected relationship with the farming community, providing liquid storage tanks.
“We’ve worked closely with farmers for decades providing storage tanks for rain harvesting, fuel storage and distribution, molasses and chemical storage, so the thought of more rain harvesting was beyond exciting," added Mr Owen.
South Staffs Water, who also owns Cambridge Water, met with Mr Owen and the team at Tuffa’s headquarters in March to discuss the best ways Tuffa could support and promote the initiative both materially and financially by offering significant discounts to their farmers, meaning the grants provide even better value.
Nina Yiannoukos-Benton, the catchments project manager from South Staffs Water, said: “Following the meeting with Tuffa, it quickly became apparent that Tuffa is keen to support our initiative and not because they simply want to sell their tanks. Our initiative covers dozens of grantable items unrelated to the products Tuffa manufactures”.
She addede: “The initiative has been incredibly successful, but there is significant scope for even more of our amazing farmers to come on board. The grant has increased from £10,000 up to £15,000 per year. For us, it’s about allowing the farms to nurture growth rather than having a single investment point towards the costs of voluntary on-farm infrastructural improvements and land management designed to protect the environment and improve water quality."
The impact of last year's heatwave has spotlighted a problem that everybody knew existed. Farmers, already under price pressure for their products, have only a limited resource for capital investments which is why grants from forward-thinking organisations such as South Staffs Water and Cambridge Water are so critical. Defra also offers single-payment grants of up to £900 specifically towards rain harvesting tanks.
