The Financière agricole du Québec is now accepting submissions for this year’s Tournez-vous vers l’excellence (Focus on excellence) competition.
The program celebrates the individual achievement of young agricultural entrepreneurs aged 18-39. Candidates are judged on their skill, creativity, and social or environmental engagement, and compete for a $5,000 top prize, or one of two $2,500 prizes. There is also a $1,500 prize for achievement in sustainable development and a $1,500 prize for achievement in guidance or mentorship.
Applicants must have owned at least 20 per cent of their company for at least two years, and previously received part-time or full-time funding through the Financière Agricole du Québec. The program is open to company founders as well as those joined an existing company.
New this year, all eligible applicants will receive a $150 gift certificate applicable to goods or training from the Agriculture and Agri-Food Reference Centre of Quebec (CRAAQ, craaq.qc.ca).
Edem Amegbo was among last year’s winners, celebrating seven years of achievement as he built Au Jardin d’Edem in East Farnham from the ground up.
Amegbo started his career in industrial electronics. Ten years in a factory lab inspecting video game components allowed him to purchase a house in Granby. Starting his own garden, he reconnected with childhood memories of working his dad’s garden full of tomatoes, peppers, okra, and fruit trees on the outskirts of Lomé, Togo.
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