Released April 23, 2009
AMES, Iowa -- If you’ve got a dynamite idea for new value-added farm products, your nearest U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) office may have money for you from a new round of Value-added Producer Grant (VAPG) funding. Even at a time of tight federal budgets, past VAPG successes make it likely that Congress will continue to add to more than $137 million already passed out since the program was launched by the 2002 Farm Bill.
In an AgMRC Renewable Energy Newsletter article, Kansas State’s Michael Boland, John Crespi and Dustin Oswald provide tips on getting VAPG funding which can be up to $500,000 per project, with a $153,576 average. They point out that the grants can be used to subsidize the development and marketing of value-added agricultural products, expand a value-added business, and provide working capital.
A survey of past grants shows they work best for “the Midwestern and Great Plains states which have a strong commodity-focused agriculture” as well as in California, Michigan and Washington which benefit from “a great amount of diversity and value-added agriculture.” Among other tips:
- “Grants that added value to fluid milk, cut flowers, tree fruit, tree nuts, specialty meats, wheat and wine were found to result in a greater likelihood of VAPG success.”
- “. . . inexpensive corn in Iowa and southern Minnesota is likely to lead to greater opportunities to add value to corn through corn sweetener plants or ethanol plants.”
- Larger, vertically integrated operations with greater access to market intelligence “are more likely to achieve business success.”
For the full article which includes a breakdown of VAPG grants by state, visit the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center (AgMRC), a virtual value-added agriculture center operated by Iowa State University and partially funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), at: http://www.agmrc.org/.
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http://www.extension.iastate.edu/news/2009/apr/172301.htm
Contacts: Ray Hansen, AgMRC, (515) 294-3890, hansenr@iastate.edu
Don Hofstrand, AgMRC, (641) 423-0844, dhof@iastate.edu
Christa Hartsook, AgMRC, (515) 294-4430, hartc@iastate.edu
