Navigating the federal grant system was the topic of a workshop at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 97th Annual Convention and IDEAg Trade Show.

Decisions about whether a farm or agribusiness can or should apply for a federal grant requires significant foresight and self-analysis, according to grant-writing and rural entrepreneurship experts who spoke at the workshop.

A value-added support team in Iowa is made up of agribusiness experts from Iowa State University, state government and other agencies. The group meets once a month to review confidential start-up proposals. “It’s kind of like ‘Shark Tank,’ but friendlier,” joked Denny Harding, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation’s bio-economy manager and a member of the team.

“Our purpose is to help them discover their weaknesses and some of their opportunities,” Harding said. “It really does seem to help a lot of these companies that want to get started. And sometimes you can do just as much by saying, ‘Hey, this needs a lot of work and here’s what you can work on,’” he said.

Other speakers during the workshop were James Matson, owner of Matson Consulting LLC, a grant-writing specialty firm; and Christopher Cook, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation’s assistant director of rural development. There are a number of federal grants available from USDA, such as Value-Added Producer Grants, the Rural Energy for America Program and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. There are also grants available to help improve farmers’ markets and promote local food programs.