This topic is intended to be a pre-discussion for fundraising circle meeting (Sep 2021). It was suggest by @dthomas (on Slack channel here).
"As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, OFN Canada has struck up a partnership with the UBC-based farm management app LiteFarm, to try and drum up some funding for integration / api workLiteFarm offers tools to manage farm work flow, understand profitability on a crop by crop basis, and streamline certification processes – but it also has a fair amount of capacity to document impact of diversified and regenerative farming practices (ie. tracking biodiversity, soil health, and other indicators).
We are working on trying to find some Canadian funders interested in support integration between OFN and LiteFarm – we have had a few nibbles, but no bites.
I think it could be the case that international SDG-focused funding bodies and development agencies (eg Green Climate Fund (GCF)) would be a better fit for this project?
From a funding standpoint, the key advantage of integration between OFN and LiteFarm, is that it would help us to better document the environmental impact of OFN-coordinated short supply chains and local food systems" what do others think?
I’m not sure what kind of decision is expected here. Is it around validating Litefarm as a partner? (I would say that OFN CA is sovereign on that). Or is it about using global funds to do this integration?
If the topic is actually non-technical, I’m happy to trust other people in the circle to move this forward
I’m really just asking whether anyone else in the fundraising circle (or elsewhere) is interested in collaborating on a funding proposal to support this integration. If others agreed that the project could be appealing to international funders, or funders in their countries, I would be happy to contribute to the process, make connections to LiteFarm etc., as needed
@dthomas, I actually had a lead for a Horizon Europe program…I almost contacted you, but then the proposal didn’t have a strong coordinator (among many other aspects to deal with in a very short time frame) so I also dropped out of the initiative.
This just to say, absolutely when an opportunity arises I will definitely let you know.
I do wonder, how many other institutions like this might exist in the network, and what good way could we find to keep an overview of all of them?
@dthomas, could I ask you to review the other items in the meeting and comment to let us know what you think?
