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turbinesFor decades, investment in rural areas has been a fundamental function of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Excluding farm loans and subsidies, the USDA has funded well over two and a half billion dollars in rural development over the past 5 years. These investments address challenges faced by rural communities across the country where outdated infrastructure cannot support or attract new businesses and investments that foster much needed growth and job creation.

The USDA recently hosted the first ever Rural Opportunity Investment Conference where Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the Rural Infrastructure Opportunity Fund. The fund is a $10 billion infusion of private capital that will direct financing to rural infrastructure projects. This will attract additional investments to rural America by connecting major investors with rural business leaders, government officials, economic development experts and other partners and help propel the growth of small businesses across rural America.

The newly created Rural Business Investment Company will allow USDA to facilitate private equity investments in agriculture-related businesses such as: bio-manufacturing, advanced energy production, local and regional food systems, improved farming technologies and other innovative fields.

TechVision21 promotes innovation in a wide range of renewable energy technologies. We help our clients leverage USDA programs and initiatives to support the deployment of renewable energy projects—in biofuels, solar, wind and waste to energy—and energy efficiency in rural communities.

Quick Facts:

  • USDA’s Rural Business Investment Program (RBIP) promotes economic development in mostly rural areas by helping to meet the equity capital investment needs of smaller enterprises in such areas. USDA licenses newly formed for-profit investment fund entities as Rural Business Investment Companies (RBICs). RBICs use the equity raised in capitalizing their fund to make equity and equity-like investments mostly in smaller enterprises located primarily in rural areas.
  • Last year, U.S. agriculture exports supported nearly one million jobs and reached a record value of $144 billion. The USDA predicts that by 2020, that value will have increased further.
  • Last year, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the U.S. a D+ on infrastructure, estimating that the country needs to spend $3.6 trillion by 2020 to maintain maintenance levels of roads, waterways, bridges, and waste systems.
  • DOT will soon release a 400-page report on nation’s crumbling infrastructure, CBS sources say.
  •  “Over the past six years, USDA has been a critical source of funding for [rural] companies today,” Engel said. “But the agency has finite resources, and there’s an understandable backlog of projects across many of these sectors. We have to do everything we can to facilitate the flow of capital to rural infrastructure projects.”