While attending the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Convention, Farm Director KC Sheperd caught up with Farm Bureau’s Rural Economic Development Coordinator Amarie Bartel to talk about the Activate Oklahoma programs and more.
Activate Oklahoma is an Oklahoma Grassroots Rural and Ag Business Accelerator pipeline which is essentially a program designed to help startup companies reach profitability faster.
“Activate Oklahoma and AgCelerate Oklahoma are for anyone from a community of fifty thousand individuals or less,” Bartel explained.
Companies that stay in pre-profitability for too long often have a short lifespan, so Farm Bureau’s goal is to keep these companies in business and actuate rural jobs through them using these programs.
“We know that 96% of farm families derive a portion of their income from an off-farm source,” Bartel revealed. “We want to ensure that off-farm jobs are readily available. By planting new companies in rural communities, we are able to help catalyze those rural jobs.”
The AgCelerator Program is for companies either beginning entirely new ideas or new versions of existing concepts. Farm Bureau is widening its scope of innovation to help more businesses grow.
“There are additional opportunities,” Bartel added. “We are launching a Masterclass series, and in partnership with many rural ecosystem entrepreneurship providers, also a series of conferences. Between those two programs added onto the accelerator, we have a program for anyone from a legacy business to an innovative startup.”
Many of the available programs will kick off in 2025. The AgCelerator Program opens for applications early in the year, and applications can be accessed on the Farm Bureau website. The Rural Entrepreneurship Opportunities program has applications available on launchruralok.com. Its application window opened in November and conferences will be available in February and March 2025. The Master Class series, comprised of four classes in eight different rural communities, begins taking applications in January 2025.
Bartel encouraged individuals who aren’t sure which program will fit their ideas to reach out to her via email or by calling the Oklahoma Farm Bureau so the call can be directed to her.
