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Earn an AgTech Certification from North Carolina A&T — Offered in Halifax County

You don’t have to leave the region to gain world-class agricultural business training. The AgTech Education Program, delivered by North Carolina A&T State University, will be hosted at the SOVA Innovation Hub in South Boston.

This six-month program is designed to equip participants with the tools to thrive in today’s agriculture and AgTech industries, covering everything from marketing and finance to the latest advances in agricultural innovation.

Who Should Apply:

• Individuals interested in launching a career in agriculture or AgTech
• Current business owners who want to expand their knowledge through instruction from professors and industry leaders

Program Details:

📅 Start date: Wednesday, October 15 (sessions held twice a month for six months)

📍 Location: SOVA Innovation Hub – 715 Wilborn Ave, South Boston, VA

🕘 Time: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST

Bonus: Graduates of the program may also qualify for the 434 Small Business Loan from Halifax County Community Federal Credit Union — an excellent resource to help bring your new ideas to life. 

Register today: AgTech Certification Registration Form >

For more information, contact Program Administrator Austin Wright, President of Wright Industries, at CEO@adjwright.com

RISE Summit 2025: Where Rural Entrepreneurs Thrive

The RISE Summit is Southern Virginia’s annual gathering for entrepreneurs and small business owners across every industry — including agriculture, food production, and agritourism.

This year’s Summit features general business sessions plus two can’t-miss workshops for ag and food entrepreneurs:

1. Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA): Learn from Dr. Scott Lowman, Vice President of Research at the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research. He will provide insights on growing opportunities in indoor and hydroponic systems. Discover how technology is reshaping the way we grow food – and how you can benefit from this trend.
   
2. Cottage Food Industry Survival Guide: Learn from Delilah White, Owner of Ry’s Pies & Cobblers.  She will cover how to legally create and sell homemade food products in Virginia — a perfect path for growers and home-based food makers ready to turn their recipes into revenue.

The 2025 RISE Summit includes a total of 16 breakout sessions to choose from, along with an inspirational keynote speaker and networking opportunities throughout the event. 

Event Details:

📅 Date: Saturday, November 1, 2025 

📍 Location: Institute for Advanced Learning & Research – 150 Slayton Avenue, Danville, VA 

🕘 Time: 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM EST (doors open at 8:00 AM)

Learn more and register at sovarise.com/summit >

For more information, contact hello@sovarise.com

The post Two Opportunities for Agriculture and Food Entrepreneurs in Southern Virginia appeared first on SOVA Innovation Hub.

The Southside FFA Federation Public Speaking Contest held at the SOVA Innovation Hub, provided an opportunity for students to showcase their public speaking abilities. The Halifax County Middle and High School FFA chapters hosted the event, and one of their own, Evelyn Farmer, received second place in the senior prepared public speaking contest.

Evelyn’s speech on “The Importance of Social Media in Agriculture” caught our attention, and we were eager to learn more about her and the message she shared in her speech. In this blog post, we had the privilege of catching up with Evelyn to delve deeper into the topic of social media in agriculture.

Southside FFA Federation Public Speaking Contest Award Recipients. Evelyn Farmer pictured 3rd from the right.

“Take a second and close your eyes. Imagine you are scrolling through Facebook and you see all these ads for honey, soaps, and other rural businesses or farms. You become mesmerized by these products and decide to purchase them as a result of these advertisements. By doing this you are now a cog in the wheel of agriculture. Hello, my name is Evelyn Farmer and I am a member of the Halifax High FFA Chapter. Today, I will be stressing the importance of Agriculture in social media.

The presence of Agriculture in social media is important for many reasons. A few reasons are farmers and advocates of agriculture can use it to communicate; farmers use it to promote farms and products; and consumers use it for educational purposes. Social media has impacted agriculture communication, promotion, and agriculture education in my opinion for the better.

The first reason is, social media helps give farmers and rural business owners a voice. Social media gives you the right to create content that represents you and your farm or business. Therefore, allowing farmers to take back the narrative and show what farm life really looks like. Also, before social media, farmers could only congregate with other local farmers to conversate about their farms. Now, due to social media farmers can communicate with other farmers all across the world.

However, many are still behind when it comes to the new growth of social media (Varner 2018). This can create many lost opportunities to promote their farm and products. Promoting products locally can attract some business, but if you use social media, it reaches more people, which in return attracts more business. I have found that many farms and rural businesses use Facebook as a platform to advertise their livestock and products. Facebook is a great tool for farmers who are just starting to branch into social media. I’ve seen farmers using Facebook to sell things from goats, to honey, to soap, to fresh fruit, and even baked goods. My family owns a dog training and breeding business. Word of mouth has helped to attract some business, but our Cedar Hill Retrievers website and Facebook page has helped more people hear about us. When marketing isn’t a farmer or business owner’s core skill, social media can be a big help. For example, using hashtags can help people who are looking for the product see your business. One example of this is, if you use the hashtag #honeyforsale, when someone looks that hashtag up they will see your business or farm (Social B 2015).

The third reason is many people use social media for educational purposes. Social media is an effective way for farmers to educate consumers about what goes into the products they buy. Knowing about all the work that goes into making the things you enjoy will give you a new outlook, and make you appreciate farmers a little more.

 Also, many schools don’t have agricultural education programs. So many young people learn about the importance of agriculture through social media. Some farmers or agriculture teachers make YouTube videos. These YouTube videos are often tutorials that show people how to do certain agriculture-related activities. For example, if a farmer made a video about how to start a compost pile you could watch the video and learn from it. You could even use the material you’ve learned to create a compost pile of your own.

People often use social media to keep up to date with the changes in the world. It is important to keep up with what is going on with the changes of agriculture around you and stay connected to the community. People in past years mainly used things like newspapers, television, and magazines, but with social media becoming more popular, it is easier to reach people via social media.

Social media helps build a bigger community of people who share the same interest in agriculture. When someone has a conversation with one person about an issue, it only helps that one person. If people share and discuss an issue on social media, it can reach many other people who may have the same question (Varner 2018). Social media helps to create a quick and easy way to build relationships with other people interested in agriculture. Social media helps make things like physical distance and isolation issues of the past. With the help of social media, we don’t have to live near someone to conversate about our interest in agriculture.

 I recently had an interview with Christy Parker from Parker’s Farm in South Boston Virginia. Parker’s Farm is a Nigerian Dwarf goat farm that also sells rabbits. Mrs. Parker expressed to me that she feels social media has helped their business tremendously. She informed me that social media helps her show the goats that have impressive pedigrees and the registered dairy goats. She believes that social media shows her goats are raised in a good environment and are good quality. Mrs. Parker also shared that social media makes her feel more connected and in touch with the community. She told me that the social media platform she likes the most is Facebook. She said she likes Facebook more than other platforms due to the fact it is more interactive. Mrs. Parker let me know that she has recommended Facebook to other farmers that were having a hard time selling their products and livestock. (Parker, C. 2022)

However, there is a con about social media. On social media it is easy for false information to spread. For example, in 2019, Fairlife went viral on Twitter and Facebook. Activists had released a video they thought showed abuse from the milk company. This hurt Fairlife tremendously. People were protesting them; their products were being taken off shelves; and there was even a lawsuit filed against them. Despite this reason and situation, social media has also helped agriculture in many ways. Social media has made promotion, education, and communication so much easier (Elejalde-Ruiz 2019).

To drive my point home, if I could summarize the importance of agriculture in social media, it would be: farmers use it to promote farms and products, consumers use it for educational purposes, and farmers and advocates of agriculture can use it to communicate. I hope through this topic I’ve shared my passion for agriculture with you, and you will be encouraged to support agriculture on social media.”

____

Q: How do you spend your free time? What are your hobbies?
A: I spend much of my time outside or reading. I have a Nigerian Dwarf goat that I have raised from a bottle baby, and in the summertime, I am heavily involved with gardening.

Q: Give us some background on why you chose this topic?
A: I chose this topic because in this day and time most people are influenced or involved with social media in some way. Agriculture has not always been something that is popular or often talked about on social media, and it should be. I also chose this topic to inform people about how social media can impact Agriculture. I wanted to show how people in agriculture can use social media to their advantage and to better the field.

Q: Is there anything that wasn’t included in your speech that you would like to add?
A: I touched on mainly everything in my speech, but I do think it is truly important to stress the education factor. Many adults and young people did not grow up with the access to learn about the importance of agriculture. Social media gives them the tools to explore many parts of agriculture and why it is so important.

Q: In your opinion, what does the future of agriculture look like?
A: I think the future of agriculture is undecided. We will always have some type of agriculture field but what that looks like depends on us. If we continue to educate our future generations and advocate for agriculture, the future of agriculture should be bright and strong. I feel like the future of agriculture will be one pushing towards change and growth.

The future of agriculture may be uncertain but it is definitely growing and bright.

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Julia Weir’s Journey

Julia is using a ChangeX grant to go completely bee-friendly!

While this is Julia’s first year farming under her own name and company, she is not new to the flower farming world. Growing up in Warrenton, Virginia, she always planted flowers and vegetables at home, and when Julia graduated high school, it was the perfect opportunity to take an internship at a cut flower farm and learn from the experts.  

She now lives in Republican Grove in Halifax County where she has room to grow on her mother’s fields. She says, “I was inspired by my tobacco farming neighbors to pursue my passion and dream of flower farming.” When asked what she is most proud of, Julia said, “Just doing this. I’ve come up with a million excuses not to put myself out there as a grower.” This year, her passion to grow became stronger than her excuses and pushed her to start her business. 

You can expect fresh, seasonal arrangements from Julia.

Julia knows farming is not easy – during her internship she learned all the hard work that goes into operating a flower farm. Fields produce

flowers from April to October, but prep work needs to be done all year round. Access to capital is also a challenge. Julia says, “I need to develop more capital to invest into extending my grow season.” Additional capital would allow for the purchase of row covers, hoop houses, and a larger greenhouse. How is she funding her venture now? Julia is using her personal savings as well as a Pollinator Project grant through ChangeX. The ChangeX grant will help her plant more native species and make her completely bee–friendly.  

Beyond supporting bees, native plants support the ecosystem and provide food and habitat for a variety of pollinators, including hummingbirds, butterflies, and bats. When shoppers buy flowers from Julia, they are supporting the local ecological system. “A purchase from me is a purchase for happy pollinators and beautiful birdsong,” said Julia. While Julia realizes that flowers are a luxury purchase for many people, she also strives to make her flowers affordable. 

Support from the Agricultural Community

“The best thing about farming,” Julia describes, “is that I’ve learned the most from farmers themselves. The growing and gardening community has a wealth of life hacks and secrets learned from a lifetime of trial and error.” As a young entrepreneur, Julia is not afraid to ask for help from a variety of experts. She says help comes from everywhere: from Bob Wollam, Jillian McFayden, and Hillary Gottemoeller – her mentors at Wollam Gardens, from Abbott Farm Suppliers in Halifax, from every person she talks to at garden centers and nurseries, and

Visit Julia at the Downtown South Boston Farmer’s Market

from books! Her favorites are Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden, by Erin Benzakein as well as The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower’s Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers by Lynn Byczynski. Support can be found all over, especially in such a welcoming community. Julia wanted to make sure all the members of the Downtown South Boston Farmers Market knew they have been incredibly helpful in motivating her and offering support, especially Market Manager Megan Throckmorton–Harris.  

This is Julia’s first season growing in Halifax, and she is finding her footing in the community. She is determined to grow her flower farm into a professional farm and is working to achieve that goal one week at a time. 

Visit Julia’s Cut Flower Farm

You can visit Julia to purchase flowers at the Downtown South Boston Farmers Market on Saturdays, from 8am to noon. Pick up a beautiful bunch of flowers and then browse what else the market has to offer! In between market days, keep in touch with Julia through her Facebook page, @juliascutflowers.

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