CDFA-NASDA Foundation Socially Disadvantaged Farmers & Ranchers Access to Capital Program
The Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA) and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Foundation have partnered to create the
CDFA-NASDA Foundation Socially Disadvantaged Farmers & Ranchers Access to Capital Program in response to the USDA Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement 2501 Grant Program.
The program will assist socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in building successful operations by accessing sustainable business capital. The program will do so by developing a culturally significant educational curriculum that teaches agricultural finance in relatable and meaningful terms. CDFA will build on the organization’s 40-year leadership of the development finance industry, along with the experience of our strategic partners at the NASDA Foundation, to provide specialized assistance to rural communities and a transferable toolkit to communities nationwide. Through this combination of expertise and collaboration, the CDFA-NASDA Foundation Socially Disadvantaged Farmers & Ranchers Access to Capital Program will help rural communities understand the myriad of financing programs available to invest in socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers and develop long-term access to capital programs and strategies.
The
CDFA-NASDA Foundation Socially Disadvantaged Farmers & Ranchers Access to Capital Program will achieve the following outcomes:
- Increase investment in rural communities through a multi-disciplinary set of technical assistance activities such as, assembling financing, leveraging private capital, improving deal-making, and applying for federal funding.
- Create two Project Response Teams for the pre-selected pilot communities in Minnesota and New Mexico.
- Offer practical and hands-on support through on-site technical assistance from a dedicated team of development finance experts.
- Identify problems and barriers that socially disadvantaged farmers experience when trying to access capital.
- Improve participation among socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in USDA programs.
- Build relationships between socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers with state development finance agencies and state departments of agriculture along with local, state, and national USDA offices.
-Agriculture Resource Center
The Agriculture Finance Resource Center will be launched in the first quarter of the program and maintained on an on-going basis. The center will serve stakeholders as a one-stop repository of news, research, and case studies, as well as the home of the Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Access to Capital Toolkit. The toolkit, which will be developed during the first year of the program, will be a set of best practices resources designed to provide practical assistance to communities looking to invest in socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.
Learn more about the Agriculture Resource Center
-Access to Capital Toolkit
The multi-layered technical assistance provided by the CDFA–NASDA Foundation Disadvantaged Farmers & Ranchers Access to Capital Program will generate a network of stakeholders which will improve both the depth and breadth of the toolkit, ensuring that practical resources will exist to address topics from effective revolving loan fund management to leveraging bonds, tax increment and other forms of public and private capital, to encourage increased investment in socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.
Download the Toolkit (PDF)