BUILDING EQUITABLE AND INCLUSIVE AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SYSTEMS THROUGH AN HBCU AGRICULTURE BUSINESS INNOVATION CENTER

The primary goal of our proposed HBCU Agriculture Business Innovation Center (ABIC) is to increase the number of successful agricultural businesses by providing technical assistance through collaborative efforts across HBCUs. Therefore, the objectives of this HBCU ABIC are twofold:(1) to provide technical assistance to socially disadvantaged farms, firms, and individuals' with interests in agricultural and food systems through the development of an entrepreneurial academy, which will offer (a) a professional development certification program providing entrepreneurial training, consultation, workshops, and other educational resources and activities, (b) a "tournament of ideas" competitive scholarship program for socially disadvantaged farms, firms, and students for business startup, marketing, and fundraising assistance, and (c) a model for supervised agribusiness entrepreneurship beyond training to incubate business ideas, and(2) to provide workforce-oriented entrepreneurial training through student experiential learning programs.