USDA Rural Development Value-Added Producer Grant Workshop

Join USDA Rural Development, Georgia Department of Agriculture, FoodService Partners, and Georgia Small Business Development Center along with private grant writers to learn more about the USDA Value Added Producer Grant.

The Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program helps agricultural producers enter into value-added activities related to the processing and marketing of new products. The goals of this program are to generate new products, create and expand marketing opportunities and increase producer income.

You may receive priority if you are a beginning farmer or rancher, a socially-disadvantaged farmer or rancher, a small or medium-sized farm or ranch structured as a family farm, a farmer or rancher cooperative or are proposing a mid-tier value chain.

Grants are awarded through a national competition. Each fiscal year, applications are requested through a notice published in the Federal Register and through an announcement posted on Grants.gov.

Program Funding: $33 million and any additional FY 2021 funding that becomes available.

Maximum Grant Amount: Planning Grants $75,000; Working Capital Grants: $250,000.

The workshop will be held over Zoom and is free to attend. Register here.

Learn more about the program at the USDA Value Added Producer Grant program page. See also the description of VAPG on this site.

2020 Value-Added Producer Grant Awards Announced in Georgia

I had a hand in one of these. Batting 100% on VAPG applications this year. I wished I had been able to work on more applications, but the deadline coincided with a hundred other grant deadlines, project events, unexpected commitments, and even the start of the COVID-19 period.

Great farms and farmers on this list:

$250,000.00 - GA/Brooks - THOMPSON FARMS COUNTRY CURED MEATS, LLC

This Rural Development investment will be used as working capital for theThompson Farms Ready-to-eat pulled pork product entering a new geographic region.

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$250,000.00 - GA/Bulloch - HUNTER CATTLE COMPANY LLC

This Rural Development investment will be used for working capital for Hunter Cattle Company’s "Air Dried Beef", individually packed and shelf stable product.

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$250,000.00 - GA/Clay - WHITE OAK PASTURES, INC.

This Rural Development investment will help White Oak Pastures as working capital for their new ready to eat/ready to cook canned/frozen meat and vegetables.

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$250,000.00 - GA/Dougherty - PRETORIA FIELDS FARMS, LLC

This Rural Development investment be used as working capital for Pretoria Fields Farms, LLC conversion from cereal rye to rye beer.

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$250,000.00 - GA/Gilmer - ENGELHEIM VINEYARDS LLC

This Rural Development investment will be used to assist Engelheim Vineyard to expand their wine product line.

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$250,000.00 - GA/Lamar - THOUSAND HILLS CATTLE RANCH LLC

This Rural Development investment will be used to process, package and distribute USDA Certified Organic beef cuts.

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$248,842.00 - GA/Meriwether - FITZGERALD FRUIT FARMS LLC

This Rural Development investment will be used for market expansion to distribute locally produced agricultural food produce.

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$250,000.00 - GA/Peach - LEE POPE PECANS, LLC

This Rural Development investment will be used as working capital for Lee Pope Pecans, LLC flavored and packaged snack pecans in 4 oz packages in three flavors - Roasted and Salted, Cinnamon and Gingerbread

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$250,000.00 - GA/Seminole - AMERICAN PEANUT GROWERS GROUP, LLC

This Rural Development investment will be used as working capital to convert runner peanuts to shelled and blanched runner peanuts.

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$250,000.00 - GA/Stephens - CURRAHEE VINEYARD & WINERY INC

This Rural Development investment will be used to assist the Currahee Vineyard to expand their wine product line.

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$250,000.00 - GA/Tift - SOUTHERN DRAWL COTTON, LLC

This Rural Development investment will be used as working capital for Southern Drawl Cotton LLC cotton sheets, pillowcases and cotton tea towels.

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$203,000.00 - GA/Towns - CRANE CREEK VINEYARDS INC

This Rural Development investment will be used to assist Crane Creek Vineyard to expand their wine product line.

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$250,000.00 - GA/White - HABERSHAM VINTNERS, INC.

This Rural Development investment will be used to assist Habersham Vintners, Inc for their emerging market to produce and distribute a new carbonated wine product.

USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program Awards Announced

Just as with OPPE 2501 awards, no USDA NIFA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) projects were funded in Georgia. While this may simply result from a lack of quality applications originating from the Peach State, it is disheartening to see that the Southeast mostly missed out: two grants in Mississippi, one in New Orleans, one in North Carolina, which sometimes counts as the Southeast and sometimes doesn’t. (For the purposes of reason and logic, I’m not counting Broward County as part of the region. Tallahassee, yes. Miami, no. Ocala, maybe).

Since 2014, the South has gotten a quarter of all BFRDP awards according to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. This year it was less than 10%. Curiously, grants went to some of the least populated states in the nation: Delaware, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. Five projects in the Mid-Atlantic states received funds. To the naked eye, it almost appears as if awards were clustered in certain geographic areas: the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Ohio-Kentucky, Mississippi, Plains-Midwest, Colorado-New Mexico, and the Pacific Northwest.

Having served on three BFRDP review panels, I doubt there’s any grand art or order to the overall selection of awardees. Setting aside the necessity of quality applications across the country, award decisions are often a function of the geographic distribution of reviewers. Because BFRDP review panels are conducted in-person in D.C., the process is more likely to attract reviewers who have the least trouble traveling there. And those people are naturally prejudiced toward what they know.