Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has announced funding of around €777,000 for social farming initiatives across the country.

The funding has been made available under the Rural Innovation and Development Fund.

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.

The settings range from working family farms, local community initiatives through to more institutional frameworks.

Activities in the programme have included animal care, gardening and general farmyard maintenance, or indoor activities including baking and jam making.

Minister McConalogue said that the funding allocation will be targeted towards the extension of contracts for the following projects:

Leitrim Integrated Development Company CLG – to further develop Social Farming Ireland;
Down Syndrome Irl (Cork Branch) – to provide opportunities for participation in a purpose-built farm, the 'Field of Dreams', with horticulture and animal care elements;
South Kerry Development Partnership – to increase participant and host farmers engagement;
IRD Duhallow – to promote rehabilitation, social inclusion, training and improved quality of life in a non-clinical setting using agriculture including plants and animals;
Leitrim Integrated Development Company CLG – to model and progress full commissioning and mainstreaming of social farming supports across a range of sectors and services in Ireland.

The minister said that social farming "provides an important service throughout rural communities for disadvantaged groups who are availing of a range of health service supports".

"Participation in social farming has been shown to provide many benefits such as improved community connections, increased self-esteem and improved health and well-being as well as the opportunity to learn new skills," he said.