The Minnesota Agricultural Education Leadership Council recently awarded more than $3 million to eight Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Farm Business Management programs including Riverland Community College.

The grants are provided through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, and were funded through this year’s agriculture legislation spearheaded by Bennett and House Republicans. The grants are intended to help address an instructor shortage in Farm Business Management programs, and boost the number of students who take Farm Business Management classes.

District 27A Representative Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, said, “We can’t train the next generation of farmers if schools don’t have educators and instructors to teach farm business classes.”

“These grants will help schools across the state address the shortage of instructors, and hopefully start to fix this problem. I’m glad that Riverland is one of the schools who will receive these grants and be able to help train our future farmers right here in our community. This is great news for our area, and I want to thank and congratulate the staff at Riverland for their work in securing this grant funding!”