Applications Invited for AGCO Agriculture Foundation CAG 2024

Follow us@ngobox

About the Organization

The AGCO Agriculture Foundation (the “Foundation”) was established by AGCO Corporation in 2018 as a private, not-for-profit Foundation with the mission to initiate impactful programs to support food security and sustainable agricultural development in communities. Working with nonprofit organizations around the world, the Foundation is dedicated to transforming lives in farming communities through funding support to implement holistic, action-oriented, and youth-focused programs that aim to ensure food and nutrition security, empower the next-generation of agricultural leaders, and contribute to sustainable food systems transformation and community development. The Foundation relies on the annual endowment from AGCO Corporation to implement its strategic programs. The Foundation is headquartered in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, and its operational activities are carried out in Stoneleigh, United Kingdom.

About the Grant

The Foundation requests grant applications from nonprofit organizations to support the next generation of leaders in agriculture, helping them to develop innovative solutions for agrifood systems. The program should aim to support young people to innovate and accelerate their high-impact ideas, solutions, technology innovations and agribusiness startups to deliver sustainable agri-food systems.

Global agri-food systems face complex challenges and therefore, urgently need transformation. This requires ambitious action, innovative solutions, tech-driven ideas and capacity development to achieve sustainable agri-food systems and a world without hunger.

Across agri-food systems, young people are pivotal to driving change—transformative and sustainable agriculture, bringing ideas, talents, technology innovations and tech-driven solutions. On the other hand, the agri-food sector provides broad spectrum of opportunities for improving youth employment and livelihoods.

This year’s CAG is specifically designed to receive proposals from nonprofits to support youth-led and high-impact innovations for sustainable agri-food systems. Grant proposals from eligible nonprofits must target youthful innovators (including startups), young farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises owned by younger persons who are working to develop agri-food systems.

The objectives to be achieved by nonprofits through this grant seek to:

• Support youth-led and high-impact innovations for sustainable food systems, helping to create new viable opportunities for young farmers and youth startups and support ideas, innovations and solutions that fulfil sustainable agri-food systems ambitions.
• Address the main challenges faced by youth in agri-food sector and contributes to healthy and sustainable agri-food systems.
• Facilitate a support system for the community of next-generation agricultural leaders to learn, upskill, invent and scale their agricultural innovations and business enterprises.
• Create dignified green job opportunities for young people across the agricultural value chains.
• Revolutionize perception and limited attractiveness of the agri-food systems for young people. The selected nonprofit organizations shall propose activities and mechanisms to achieve the objectives of this grant.

Working with nonprofit to support the next-generation leaders in agriculture is fundamental to this call for grant proposals. The grant seeks to work with nonprofit to respond to some of the factors limiting youth involvement and participation in the agri-food systems and ultimately contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The Foundation strongly believes in young people's ideas and innovations and their pivotal role in ensuring healthy and sustainable agri-food systems. The agricultural sector has enormous potential to create social impact and enhanced climate resilience. To advance youth engagement in the agri-food systems, the Foundation acknowledges the significance of ensuring youth have access to enabling support and resources to translate ideas into real-time innovative solutions applicable to various agriculture ecosystems. The Foundation welcomes grant proposals from nonprofit organizations to create and facilitate programs to support the next generation of leaders in agriculture helping them to develop innovative solutions for agri-food systems. Programs must target at least one of these areas:

• Digital agriculture
• Climate resilience
• Capacity development.
• Market efficiency
• Energy for food systems
• Food innovations.

Across these priority areas, proposing nonprofits must also consider integrating learning opportunities, such as short-term bootcamps and accelerator programs, into the proposed programs on innovation for sustainable food systems to ensure participating youths have the much-needed entrepreneurial training, professional network and technical knowledge of the agri-food sector.

Grant Size

The Foundation will provide a maximum of US$400,000 to US$450,000 each for one or more projects selected for this grant cycle to carry out the planned activities. The grant proposal must be designed for a three-year project duration. The Foundation will disburse the grant funds in three instalments over the project duration. Proposing nonprofits should consider this arrangement when developing the budget breakdown. The Foundation reserves the right to decline grant requests that are not within the indicated amount or program thematic. Proposing nonprofit organizations must ensure the grant proposal budget adheres to the Foundation’s funding guideline - 70% of grant funds go directly towards the program’s activities, while 30% are for administrative support. Following the funding guideline highlighted above is mandatory, as our reviewers will pay keen attention to it.

Eligibility

The Foundation welcomes grant proposals from nonprofit organizations registered and recognized as charitable, nonprofit, or non-governmental organizations under the law. As part of the application process, the proposing entity must provide a certificate/proof of nonprofit status. Where required, as part of the review and approval process, the Foundation may contact the proposing entity for clarification and request further documentation.

How to Apply

As part of the selection process, nonprofit organizations must complete all the mandatory questions in the grant application form through our Community Investment software partner, Benevity and, in addition, must submit the following documents required as part of the grant proposal package:

• Project proposal in English (Word Doc format) - (max. 3,000 words).
• Budget breakdown in spreadsheet.
• Proof of nonprofit status.

These additional documents should be uploaded directly on the portal under the application form's specific section. The review team will only consider the listed supporting documents in the selection process. Other unsolicited documents, such as annual reports, do not count towards the grant decision and will not be reviewed.

Close Grant Application Portal 29th November; 5:00pm EST.

Proposing nonprofits should start the grant application process on the Foundation’s website - https://www.agcofoundation.org/grants by reviewing all grant application packages, including the FAQs.

For more information please check the Link

Be A Part of Asia’s Largest CSR & Sustainability Forum- India CSR Summit & ESG Forum 2024 | 16th*, 17th & 18th October 2024

Tags Food, Agriculture and Nutrition Innovations and Technology Rural Development Others