“Agriculture and forestry are Virginia’s largest industries, but we learned that too often economic development projects within these important business sectors didn’t meet the necessary criteria for the Commonwealth’s major incentive programs,” said Governor McDonnell, who has made agriculture and forestry key components of his overall economic development and jobs creation agenda. “That’s an omission that we’ve addressed as the AFID clearly recognizes the sometimes unique aspects of agriculture and forestry projects. We hope this program will encourage local governments to work closely with these important industries to create new jobs and increased economic opportunity in communities throughout the Commonwealth.”
The creation of the AFID was part of Governor McDonnell’s jobs creation and economic development agenda during the 2012 session of the General Assembly. The Governor signed the AFID bill into law on May 9 at Cave View Farm in Weyers Cave. Senator Bill Stanley (R – Glade Hill) and Delegate Steve Landes (R – Augusta) sponsored the AFID legislation, which is funded at $1 million in each year of the biennium. AFID funds are broken into two categories with $750,000 going to large grants to assist local efforts in expanding current or attracting new agriculture and forestry processing/value-added facilities using Virginia grown products and $250,000 dedicated to small grants to assist localities in improving local economic development efforts relating to agribusiness. The guidelines being released today are for applicants seeking an AFID grant for a processing or value-added facility. Guidelines for the assistance to localities will be released later this year.
