North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) has received $1.92 million to create an Agriculture Business Innovation Center. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded the money to N.C. A&T’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.
The center will provide technical assistance for business and workforce development training.
“The center’s primary goal will be to increase the number of successful agricultural businesses through tailored training and incubation of startups.” said Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna, dean of the college. “This project is an integral part of our land-grant mission to serve small, minority and limited-resource agriculture producers. We expect the center’s impact to be immediate and extensive.”
The center will be led by North Carolina A&T, in partnership with Kentucky State University, Alabama A&M University, and West Virginia State University.
The center will offer a professional development certification program; a competitive scholarship program for socially disadvantaged farms, firms, and students; and a model for supervised agribusiness entrepreneurship.
