New Entrant Farm Business Accelerator Program

Who can apply

Eligibility requirements for phase 1 are:

1. You must be a primary agriculture producer in British Columbia who grows or raises products for sale.
2. You must be a for-profit farm business that is a sole proprietorship, a registered B.C. business (partnerships, corporations, cooperatives, Indigenous economic development corporations, and band-owned businesses), or an unregistered business that commits to registering by February 2026.
3. You must have not yet reported farm income to the CRA or have done so for 5 years or less.
4. You and all other owners/members/shareholders must be B.C. residents who file income tax in British Columbia.
5. You must not have already received funding for the same activities from specific programs (Beneficial Management Practices Program, Agriculture Water Infrastructure Program, Food Systems and Agriculture Partnership Program, or the Indigenous Food Security and Sovereignty Fund) after April 1, 2025.
6. Costs are only eligible for reimbursement if they are incurred after your project has been officially approved.

To be eligible for Phase 2 funding:

The applicant has either:

1. Received a Statement of Completion from the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) Program,
2. Committed to apply for and, to the extent possible, complete an EFP prior to March, 2027.

Primary production is defined as an operation that produces agricultural products and reports revenues or expenses for tax purposes to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Agricultural products include:

1. Crops: grains, oilseeds, leguminous crops, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, berries, greenhouse products, mushrooms, sod,

nursery, Christmas trees, maple tree taps, hay and fodder crops, cannabis, hemp, wild harvested products, and other crops.

1. Livestock: dairy and beef cattle (including feedlots), pigs, poultry and eggs (including hatcheries), turkeys, ducks, geese, sheep,

goats, horses and other equines, bison (buffalo), elk (wapiti), deer, llamas and alpacas, rabbits, bees and other animals.

1. Health Canada licensed Cannabis and Hemp producers are eligible for participation in the New Entrant Farm Business

Accelerator Program. Federally Licensed Cannabis and Hemp producers or processors must provide proof of either their standard-cultivators, micro-cultivators, processing, or industrial hemp license as issued by Health Canada under the Cannabis Act or Industrial Hemp Regulations by submitting their; ‘License Holder Name’, ‘License Identification Number’, and ‘License Type’ (Micro or Standard).

Not eligible:

The personal production of medicinal cannabis is not eligible for this program NOT included are: forestry and logging, hunting and trapping, fishing and aquaculture, support activities for agriculture and post- harvest activities, horse boarding and riding lessons, operations producing products that are not for human consumption (e.g. genetic operations, insect farms for pet food

For clarity, the following entities are not eligible for the NEFBA Program

Aquaculture, seaweed, fish and/or seafood producers or processors

Aquaponic food producers

Not-for-profit organizations, societies (such as farmers and women's

institutes), or industry associations representing agriculture, food, or seafood producers/processors with commercial operations

Private training and educational institutions

K-12 educational institutions

Organizations that primarily support non-commercial food production

such as recreational growers, community gardens, or other agriculture initiatives with limited commercial production capacity

Municipalities and regional districts

Unlicensed cannabis operations