This is the first in a series of three posts on the Fiscal Year 2015 awards for the Value Added Producer Grants program. This post provides an overview of the awards. A second and third post will dig deeper into specific awards.
On November 10, Vernita Dore, Deputy Under Secretary of Rural Development, announced that 258 farm businesses from 47 states, Puerto Rico, and the Western Pacific will receive $34 million in grants from the Fiscal Year 2015 round of the Value-Added Producer Grants (VAPG) program.
The VAPG program contributes to farmer-led job and business creation in rural areas, while enhancing food choices for consumers. The program provides competitive grants to individual independent agricultural producers, groups of independent producers, producer-controlled entities, producer associations, and farmer or rancher cooperatives to create or develop value-added producer-owned businesses. VAPG grants may be used to fund business and marketing plans and feasibility studies or to acquire working capital to operate a value-added business venture or alliance. Working capital applications must be supported by an independent feasibility study as well as a business plan.
More information on the program is available in our Grassroots Guide to Federal Farm and Food Programs and our Farmers Guide to VAPG. We also issued a press release on the new awards.
The funding for FY 2015 is a combination of discretionary funding from FY 2015 appropriations legislation and mandatory funding from the 2014 Farm Bill. For FY 2015, Congress appropriated $10.75 million to supplement direct spending from the Farm Bill, which provides $63 million over five years. Hence, of the $34 million in new awards, approximately $23 million was from the farm bill direct spending account.
By the Numbers
(Editors note: USDA provides relatively little information about the awards, so in each category cited above and below, there may be more in a category than what we can ascertain based on the very brief summaries provided.)
The 2015 awards include at least five mid-tier value chain, supply network, and food hub projects and at least 11 organic food projects. Roughly 32 projects are marketing their value-added products locally or serving a local market. A dozen or more of the projects are to farmer coops. At least three projects are with tribal producers.
By product, meat and dairy led the way with at least 70 projects (36 dairy and 34 meat). Within that category, 12 projects focus on production and marketing of grass-fed products.
Wine, cider, juices, and other beverages weighed in with 42 projects. Specialty crops (fruit, vegetables, nuts, etc.) came in close behind with at least 31 awards, though when and if more complete information becomes available, it may be this number is higher. The remainder is made up of projects focused on grain and oilseeds, maple syrup and honey, eggs, fish, and fuel and other non-food products.
Approximately 17 percent of the awards were for planning grants and feasibility studies.
State and Regional Breakdown
At the regional level, the Midwest led the way with 32 percent of all projects. The South followed closely behind with 26 percent. The Northeast and West accounted for 20 percent and 19 percent of projects, respectively.
In the chart below, we list the top 10 states by number of awards:
| State | Number of Awards | Total Amount Awarded |
| Virginia | 21 | 3,096,643 |
| New York | 14 | 1,867,933 |
| Georgia | 12 | 2,571,047 |
| Wisconsin | 12 | 2,197,818 |
| California | 11 | 1,586,580 |
| Missouri | 11 | 1,461,499 |
| Washington | 10 | 831,218 |
| Iowa | 9 | 1,215,070 |
| Oregon | 9 | 1,185,130 |
| Minnesota | 9 | 1,054,749 |
| Kansas | 9 | 705,334 |
And the top 10 states by total grant amount:
| State | Number of Awards | Total Amount Awarded |
| Virginia | 21 | 3,096,643 |
| Georgia | 12 | 2,571,047 |
| Wisconsin | 12 | 2,197,818 |
| New York | 14 | 1,867,933 |
| Puerto Rico | 8 | 1,683,000 |
| California | 11 | 1,586,580 |
| Missouri | 11 | 1,461,499 |
| Maryland | 8 | 1,237,965 |
| Iowa | 9 | 1,215,070 |
| Oregon | 9 | 1,185,130 |
Click here for the complete list of the new Value-Added Producer Grant award recipients.
Previous VAPG awards supporting local and regional projects are mapped on the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food compass.
For more information on VAPG, visit NSAC’s Grassroots Guide to Federal Farm and Food Programs.