We are planting the seeds of respect, pride, and financial freedom for future generations of Latinos in Minnesota.
We strive to provide a complete one-stop agricultural business program for all of our clients. Over the last 10 years, LEDC has developed multiple ways to help Latino farmers in Minnesota both start and grow their farm businesses. We provide technical assistance, business development, access to capital and markets, as well as specialize in organic and GAP certification for your farm.
We work one-on-one with each of our clients
We provide one-on-one technical assistance to farmers in their own fields. We have highly skilled farm trainers who own their own farms and are able to help think through most any problem. Technical assistance includes farm planning, crop planning, irrigation, tractor and equipment purchasing, seeding and planting, disease management, and harvest/post-harvest handling. Throughout the year we also provide more in-depth workshops on a variety of subjects.
As part of our technical assistance, we advise entrepreneurs on how to write and apply for direct grants for farms in Minnesota. These grants often help to fund equipment purchases and infrastructure projects. We can also use these grants to leverage other sources of funding, like loans, for example.
Our farm loan officers will advise and help individual farmers prepare a loan package to obtain business financing and start-up loans. We work with our own loan fund as well as leverage funds from other financial institutions including the Rural Finance Authority of Minnesota. We are able to help clients obtain start-up capital, operating loans, and have helped farmers purchase their own land. For more information, please visit our Lending page.
We also can leverage funds from other financial institutions, including RFA, FSA, Compeer Financial, partner CDFIs, and other private banks.
We work one-on-one with our farm clients to help them see farming as a business. Our farm business consultants work to guide our clients through the process of obtaining licenses and permits needed to start a business in Minnesota. They receive advice about how to implement a basic bookkeeping system, a marketing plan, and business registration. In addition, our clients can work with us to get their operations organic certification as well as GAP certification.
Do you need to purchase land? LEDC provides the resources you need to buy your own farmland. Not only can we help secure the funding you need to purchase the land, we also offer resources to find the perfect plot and to help you navigate the purchasing process.
We recognize that good markets are the most important part of any farm’s ability to be successful. That’s why we work to connect farmers to local markets that are available for their produce and other agricultural products, including through The Good Acre.
In these videos in Spanish, you can find information on the search, collection, and diagnosis of problems in the plants of the field.
Informative material created by the University of MN Extension with the collaboration of Rodrigo Cala.
This video shows the agriculture services that the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC) offers in Minnesota.
For general questions and to schedule an appointment please fill the form bellow.
Agriculture
Email: info@ledcmn.org
