Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the primary goal of our proposed…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the primary goal of our proposed hbcu agriculture business innovation center (abic) is to increase the number of successful agricultural businesses by providing technical assistance through collaborative efforts across hbcus. This project is an integrated proposal with the primary focus on outreach (EWE) functions to serve socially disadvantaged populations. The proposed abic will also serve as a convener to support regional and national partnership in providing access to private venture capital, data tracking and analysis, evaluation, and measurement for effective programming in outreach. The objectives of this hbcu abic are twofold: (1) to provide technical assistance to socially disadvantaged farms, firms, and individuals with interests in agricultural and food systems through the development of an entrepreneurial academy, which will offer (a) a professional development certification program providing entrepreneurial training, consultation, workshops, and other educational resources and activities, (b) a tournament of ideas competitive scholarship program for socially disadvantaged farms, firms, and students for business startup, marketing, and fundraising assistance, and (c) a model for supervised agribusiness entrepreneurship beyond training to incubate business ideas, and (2) to provide workforce-oriented entrepreneurial training through student experiential learning programs. The expected outcomes will be enhanced knowledge and skills of agricultural business owners to plan, create, develop, and fund ventures. Continuous training with two tracks (farming enterprises and agriculture/food product or service enterprises) will be collaborated with USDA funded four regional rural development centers and the ohio state university south centers along with partnering 1890 hbcu LG institutions to ensure the longevity of the abic.