Two of the latest grant opportunities for Virginia farmers and agribusiness operators are the Virginia Farm Business Development Program, announced last fall, and a federal local foods and farmers’ market grant program.

Twenty Virginia companies are among recipients of U.S. Department of Agriculture value-added grants to help farmers, ranchers, small businesses and entrepreneurs develop new product lines.

Carroll County and Smyth County Farm Bureaus are pursuing projects that will teach children about agriculture this year—with support from the 2016 White-Reinhardt Fund for Education mini-grant program.

Greensville County Farm Bureau educated children about agriculture this year with the help of a mini-grant from the White-Reinhardt Fund for Education.

An $800,000 Southern Virginia Vineyard Development and Expansion Grant available through the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission is expected to foster new and expanded wine grape acreage in Southside Virginia.

Six Virginia localities are receiving fiscal 2016 grants to place working farmland under permanent conservation easements.

Virginia Agriculture in the Classroom awarded more than $12,500 in grant funding to 25 schools and other education programs through its mini-grant program this fall.

Almost 1,500 Virginia livestock farmers have signed up for state cost-share funding to install conservation practices on their farms.

Inside a 100-year-old former YMCA, researchers from Virginia State University are discovering which techniques for indoor farming work best in an urban environment—and hoping to help reduce the problem of food deserts in American cities.

Virginia’s Agriculture in the Classroom program is the recipient of the 2012 Agriculture in the Classroom Excellence Grant from the National Agriculture in the Classroom Consortium. This is the fifth time the Virginia program has received an ACE Grant.