by MEREDITCH BAUER-MITCHELL, UF/IFAS
Growing a business is difficult. Growing an agriculture business can have its own unique challenges that can be daunting for a budding businessperson.
That’s why the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Department of Food and Resource Economics (FRE) is launching a new entrepreneurship program, specifically targeted for students who want to create agricultural businesses.
The Wayne T. Davis Agricultural and Rural Entrepreneurship program will kick off in the fall of 2026 with the course Principals of Agricultural Entrepreneurship, with a follow-up course in the spring of 2027. The class series will focus on the basics of entrepreneurship and business-planning, with a focus on agricultural issues, said Tori Rumenik, an FRE alumna and the program’s creative coordinator. The courses are open to both undergraduate and graduate students as joint classes. All majors across UF can enroll.
“Agriculture is facing huge challenges, from automation demand to responsible water use, and UF really has the brightest minds in the nation where it comes to agriculture innovation,” she said. “We want to make it possible for them to take those big ideas and transform them into businesses after graduation, but we need to provide the toolkit to do so.”
The course series will focus on agricultural business basics in the fall, such as business fundamentals, regulation, food safety, safe lending practices and market research. Students will hear from successful business leaders in the agriculture industry about best practices, lessons learned and success stories.
In the spring, students will create business plans and present them in a “Shark Tank”-style pitching process to mentors who run successful agricultural businesses. By the end of the course, students should feel prepared to launch their own businesses.
The goal of the program is to empower students to take the concepts they’re learning in their degree and springboard them into businesses or consumer innovations after graduation, said Rumenik, who is also the executive director of the North Carolina Ag Partnership.
The course isn’t just for students who want to start farms, although future farmers are welcome, she said. Rumenik hopes businesses from irrigation to food service to precision agriculture come out of this program.
“If someone is going to figure out how to make automated harvesting better, they’re going to come from UF,” she said. “We want to give them the space to do it.”
The program will be part of the Agricultural and Rural Entrepreneurship undergraduate minor, as well as an Agricultural and Rural Entrepreneurship track for students pursuing their Master of Agribusiness.
The program has been initially funded by a donation from Wayne T. Davis, an FRE alumnus and successful agricultural entrepreneur.
“Mr. Davis’s generous gift to start this program will help prepare our students not only for the future agricultural workforce, but it will give students the capacity to grow the workforce by becoming their own bosses,” said Lisa House, FRE chair and professor. “The next generation of problem-solvers are already in our lecture halls, and we want to equip them to go into the world with their ideas prepped and ready for the marketplace.”
Provided by UF/IFAS