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Housing
Business and Cooperatives
Value-Added Producer Grant Program
Helps producers (farmers) expand their customer base for the products or
commodities that they produce. This results in a greater portion of the
revenues derived from the value-added activity being made available to the
producer of the product.
Eligibility:
- Eligible applicants include independent producers, farmer or rancher
cooperatives, agriculture producer groups, and majority-controlled producer
based business ventures.
Terms and Conditions:
- Four distinct activities are considered value-added: a change in
the physical state or form of the product (such as milling wheat into
flour); the production or marketing of a product in a manner that enhances
its value, as demonstrated through a business plan (such as organic
production); the physical segregation of an agricultural commodity or
product in a manner that results in the enhancement of the value of that
commodity or product (such as an identity preserved marketing system); the
term value-added also includes using any agricultural product or commodity
to produce renewable energy on a farm or ranch (an example is collecting and
converting methane from animal waste to energy).
- Grant funds may be used for planning or working capital.
- The maximum amount for a planning grant is $100,000 and for a working
capital grant $300,000. Smaller grant requests receive priority
points.
- Each dollar of grant funds require a minimum match of one dollar in
non-federal funds (in-kind contributions are allowed).
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