GREENSBORO, N.C. — North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) will be the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in the United States to host an Agriculture Business Innovation Center that will help underserved populations.
The new center will serve as a "technical assistance hub" to work with other HBCUs supporting agriculture-based business development, specifically with socially disadvantaged populations and historically underserved communities.
"It's just fairly difficult for small farmers, minority farmers, or minority communities to even understand how to extend their own resource(s) if they have any resource(s) at all to create any new opportunities at the local level," said Kathleen Liang, a distinguished professor of sustainable agriculture at N.C. A&T.
N.C. A&T's College of Agriculture and Environmental Science received $1.92 million from the USDA to start the center. The center will be a hub for other HBCUs to work together and provide assistance to food and agricultural producers and also help startups in agribusiness.
"It is a significant opportunity to establish the center among the HBCUs to help people understand that the resource domain is available," said Liang. "But most of the time the people that we serve are not familiar with the programs, they don’t know how to approach a certain agency."
Leaders with N.C. A&T's Department of Agriculture says they will create an "entrepreneurial academy," that will offer a professional development certification program and a scholarship program for socially disadvantaged farms, firms, and students.
The center is also in partnership with Kentucky State University, Alabama A&M University, and West Virginia State University.
According to a press release from the university, work on the center's projects is expected to start as soon as possible.