Posted: 09.28.2010
To kick off the new school year, the Farm Service Agency and the Wisconsin Association of FFA announced a new partnership to help FFA members start or expand projects.
The partnership will allow FSA to extend low interest loans of up to $5,000 to FFA members who are applying for an Entrepreneurship Proficiency or award.
Although entrepreneurship loans are targeted to FFA members, any eligible youth from 10 to 20 years old involved in FFA, 4-H or a similar organization can qualify for a youth loan.
The loans carry an interest rate of around 2.5%.
“FFA has a strong tradition in Wisconsin,” said Brad Pfaff, Wisconsin FSA State Executive Director.
“This partnership will allow more FFA members to help start projects where they’ll learn important life values, like responsibility, resourcefulness, sensible money management, and how to borrower money.”
To qualify for the loans, the youth needs to:
- Have the sponsorship of the advisor and permission of a parent.
- Live in a rural area or town of less than 50,000 people.
- Show they can repay the loan with the project.
The application is simple, and can be downloaded either from the Wisconsin FFA website or from http://www.fsa.usda.gov/wi.
“These loans can make a real difference in whether or not a project gets off the ground,” explained Jeff Hicken, State FFA Advisor.
“Having the real-life experiences of planning a small business and borrowing money for something worthwhile, is valuable to anything they do in the future.”
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