A 20-million gallon water storage reservoir has been built near Woodbridge thanks to funding from Defra’s Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES).
The vast reservoir means farmer Richard Mann of Iken Hall Farms at Iken has been able to secure a 35 per cent increase in his contract to supply sweetcorn to supermarket giant Asda.
Richard Mann intends to extract water during the winter to irrigate the land during summer months. This will alleviate pressure on important water sources and enable the farm to grow high-income crops including courgettes and sweetcorn, and potatoes and carrots. This will also mean an increased level of seasonal employment with up to 70 jobs created during the harvest.
Pumping equipment is being installed, and another permanent member of staff has already been employed. The irrigation infrastructure is also being upgraded for agricultural use at Woods Farm, Sudbourne and a neighbouring farmer is set to lease newly irrigated land for turf production.
Richard Mann is also set to establish and wetland area and wildlife buffer zone around the reservoir, which will become a ’nectar area’, attracting birds and bees.
Iken Hall Farm applied for £80,000 from RES and the grant was approved by a panel of experts at the Rural Development Service (RDS) which administers the scheme in September 2005.
Richard Mann said:
"The whole project had been put on the back burner for two years because even though the planning permission and water licenses were in place, we had no way of funding it.
"Without the help from Defra, we would never have been able to proceed - now at last we are all systems go. The reservoir means we now have the confidence to tell Asda we can provide them 35 per cent more sweetcorn.
"I would advise any farmer thinking of applying for funding to use all the advice on hand from the RDS. They were able to answer all my questions, and made the process of applying for funding as painless and fast as possible."
Pat Williams, an adviser for the Rural Development Service in the East of England, said:
"The construction of the new reservoir at Iken Hall Farm is an excellent example of public funds being used to fund sustainable farming whilst benefiting the environment. By drawing water during the winter months when water levels are higher, more water will be available during the summer months, in what is the driest area of England - especially near the Suffolk coast with its many SSSI sites (Sites of Special Scientific Interest).
"The project also enables Mr Mann to guarantee production of high value vegetable crops and provide additional seasonal employment. The construction of a wildlife and wetland area is an added benefit to the environment and will hopefully encourage tree sparrows, barn owls and other declining farmland species. This is a positive all-round project which we are very pleased to be part of."
Richard Mann also hopes in time to be able to diversify the business into a summer tourist attraction, with rural cabins and fishing on the lake.
To simplify funding for rural areas and better target it to the needs of rural people in each region Defra is reviewing its funding streams. The current social and economic schemes of the ERDP will not be rolled forward into the next programme, which will run from 2007 to 2013, after the current ERDP closes at the end of this year.
Friday, 30 June 2006 will be the last date on which new applications may be accepted under the Rural Enterprise Scheme, the Processing and Marketing Grant, the Vocational Training Scheme and the Energy Crops
(SRC) Producer Group Scheme.
Pat Williams said: "Customers who are in the process of developing a proposal for a business or community project with a view to seeking a grant from one of these schemes are recommended to discuss their proposal with a representative from the Rural Development Service."
The 30 June deadline does not apply to Objective 1 and LEADER+ funding; neither does it apply to Environmental Stewardship (Entry Level and Higher Level schemes); nor does it relate to the Energy Crops Scheme Establishment Grants, the Hill Farm Allowance, or the English Woodland Grant Scheme.
