Grow: Johnson County receives $10,000 grant for no-till equipment

Grow: Johnson County — an educational farm program in Iowa City — has received a $10,000 grant from Bayer Fund to support a no-till grain drill and apprentice training.

Grow cultivates more than 300,000 pounds of produce annually and distributes it to 16 partner hunger-relief agencies. Its 6-acre farm is housed at the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm and is an effort of Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development — an Amana nonprofit that works to strengthen food systems, among other goals.

Grow uses its farm to train underrepresented growers in sustainable agriculture practices, including cover crops, beneficial insect habitats and organic weed and pest management, according to its website.

The new grant would enable Grow to train its seasonal apprentices in no-till production for establishing more cover crops. The equipment allows growers to plant seeds with minimal disturbance to topsoil and its organisms.

The grain drill will be incorporated into the upcoming equipment sharing program the Amana nonprofit is establishing in 2023.

“With no-till production, we will be able to improve soil health and reduce labor hours in the field,” said Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development Executive Director Jason Grimm in a statement.

Bayer Fund is a philanthropic arm of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Bayer. It provides grants to nonprofits in support of food and nutrition, STEM education and health and wellness. In 2021, Bayer Fund invested $13.1 million in under-resourced communities. Its efforts largely focus on rural, underserved communities.

“We’re proud to be able to provide support to develop programs like Grow: Johnson County that helps combat the critical issue of food insecurity and ultimately helping ensure even more Americans/the community have access to healthy, nutritious food,” said Bayer Fund President Al Mitchell in a statement.

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