This week, the NC Chamber Foundation announced the launch of the Farmer Innovation Bridge with support from the Golden LEAF Foundation and the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, putting North Carolina farmers at the center of agricultural innovation.

The Farmer Innovation Bridge will connect challenges and opportunities identified by North Carolina farmers with innovators developing new technologies, tools, and solutions.

In this conversation with NC Ag Leads intern Helen Rooks, Dr. Katherine Drake Stowe, executive director of the Farmer Innovation Bridge, explains what makes the program different and why it starts with farmers.

“It’s all about the farmers,” Stowe said. “If a technology doesn’t actually make a difference on the farm, then it’s not doing any good.”

Watch to learn:

• How the Bridge “flips the script” on the usual way agricultural innovation reaches farms
• The four steps each cycle will follow, from identifying problems to on-farm testing
• What innovators get from the program
• Why Stowe, who grew up on a family farm in eastern North Carolina, can “think of no better place to do this”

Learn more at ncagricultureleads.com.