Program awards funding to expand agricultural businesses
The North Carolina Value-Added Cost Share (NCVACS) program and the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission (NCTTFC) this week announced the recipients of 2013 equipment cost share awards. Coordinated by N.C. Cooperative Extension, NCVACS awarded $311,938 to 20 agricultural operations across the state.
NCVACS funding requires recipients to match the award dollar for dollar, or more, so that the burden of investment in specialized equipment is shared. In addition to the cost share award funding, 2013 NCVACS recipients will spend approximately $644,158 of their own money toward equipment purchases between now and the first of December 2013.
Currently funded by the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, NCVACS provides an agricultural producer or processor with up to $50,000 to purchase new or used specialized equipment to start or grow a value-added operation. A value-added product is a raw, agricultural commodity that has been changed in some manner so that it no longer can be returned to its original state, such as wine from grapes.
The NCVACS program is administered in cooperation by the Cooperative Extension component of N.C. State University’s Plants for Human Health Institute, located at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis, and the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at N.C. State.
Read a press release prepared by Plants for Human Health Institute.
