Value Added Producer Grants Now Available

June 2009 Newsletter

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that $18 million is available for Value Added Producer Grants. Applications are due July 6, 2009. Two funding set-asides have been created, both with a June 22 deadline. Ten percent is set aside for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

Another 10 percent goes to “mid-tier value chains,” defined as an agreement that establishes a marketing relationship between independent small and mid-size producers and businesses that market value added products.

Individual farmers and ranchers, businesses owned by a majority of agricultural producers, and organizations representing agricultural producers are eligible to apply. Grants cover business planning or working capital to help market a value-added agricultural product.

We’re happy to finally see this year’s cycle open to receive proposals, but we do have concerns with certain provisions.

First, the short turn around provided, especially the 45-day window for proposals from beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, is difficult. The proposal process is a lengthy one, and that is a very limited time frame to pull everything together.
The 2008 farm bill required that proposals from beginning and small and mid-size family farmers and ranchers receive priority, a victory we won thanks to your help. This announcement fails to fully recognize the Congressionally-mandated priority. It provides only eight points (out of a possible total of 90) to applicants meeting such criteria.
Finally, in seeking grants that represent “innovation,” they will provide 10 points for renewable energy projects, including E-85, that are majority owned by farmers. At least the majority farmer ownership provision remains intact, but is ethanol really all that innovative anymore? We believe it is difficult to justify more evaluation points for traditional corn-based ethanol production than for projects from beginning and small and mid-size family farmers and ranchers.

While we go to work to make improvements for the next funding cycle, we need all interested farmers and ranchers working to drive in proposals before the deadline. A large pool of quality proposals helps us to shape the program now and in the future.

If you need assistance with a proposal, access helpful templates at the University of Nebraska Food Processing Center’s website, http://fpc.unl.edu/Business/grant.shtml#template and the Georgia Rural Development office, http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/GA/vadg.htm. You can also call Mike Heavrin at the Center for Rural Affairs, 402.687.2103 x 1008 or email mikeh@cfra.org.

Value Added Producer Grants Program Update

As we were getting ready to send this newsletter, we learned there are positive changes being made to the Value Added Producer Grants Program due to concerns we and many others expressed over the program details that were recently announced (see those concerns in the article above).

We are not yet aware as to when the revised notice will be published. We will keep you posted on that so stay tuned. The most notable changes we expect to be included are:

Provides more weight in the scoring process for proposals from small, and mid-size and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.
Deletes "Innovation" as a specific scoring criteria.
Allows branding, packaging and other means of product differentiation as a component of a value added strategy in all product eligibility categories, and;
Provides a 90 day application period.

Comments

women owned sustainable/organic small farms

Tue, 06/09/2009 - 18:38 — ruth hunzeker (not verified)

I have little input because my crew and I have run into every imaginable barrier since we began to locate, purchase and manage a small(under 100 acres)combination income farm. It is difficult to be innovative when every bank, broker and seller won't take us serious. We have developed business, marketing and economic plans. As a group, we have education, experience and much to offer a local community. So far, all we believe is that there are programs, grants and stimulus packages...just not for start-ups, women or educators.

Ruth - I understand your

Mon, 06/15/2009 - 09:40 — Traci Bruckner (not verified)

Ruth - I understand your frustration and we need to learn from farmers/businesses like yours so that we can ensure these programs are working as they were intended. Please, contact me directly here at the Center and we can help connect you with folks that can help you directly with these programs and then we can also learn from you to make improvements and remove barriers that are limiting your access to these programs. The Value Added program in particular has a set-aside for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, which for this program includes women. So contact me here at the Center by calling (402) 687-2103, Ext. 1016 or email me at tracib@cfra.org Thanks!