The
Southern Ohio Agricultural & Community Development Foundation in Hillsboro is considering a venture to help entrepreneurs.
Dubbed "Next Step," the tentative program would give four awards of $25,000 each to applicants with innovative, value-added, technological or agriculture/bioresource projects. Applicants would be people who have operated a farm less than five years and who are based within the Foundation's 22-county area. They will be asked to prove their project would replace tobacco income and that there is a market for their products/services.
The Foundation's board of directors will vote on the Next Step idea in October, said Don Branson, executive director. "It's still in the review process," he said. "No final decision has been made yet."
The Foundation was created with money from Ohio's share of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement Fund, established after a 1998 agreement between numerous states and the tobacco industry. Its purpose is to support replacement of tobacco crops with others, and to assist former tobacco growers.
The Foundation's service area is Adams, Athens, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Gallia, Greene, Highland, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Noble, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Vinton, Warren and Washington counties.
Source: Don BransonWriter: Gabriella Jacobs