Some in central Kentucky believe the area has the potential to put itself on the map as a go-to for Agricultural Technology. That’s what motivated the City of Lexington, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, and the locally-based, global ag-tech company Alltech to form the Bluegrass AgTech Development Corp.
Bluegrass AgTech has new leadership with the recent appointment of Jacob Ball as its new Executive Director. In an interview with Eastern Standard, he said his experience as an educator will help new businesses in the area.
“And try to be a facilitator through Bluegrass AgTech to make sure this organization can drive, getting those entrepreneurs, those early start-ups, those agriculture companies connected within the AgTech ecosystem, the sooner we can get young entrepreneurs involved.” He said, “That's not only going to benefit them, but it's going to benefit the entire agriculture and economic ecosystem across the commonwealth.”
He said his group uses an incentive program designed to encourage ag-tech and food-based businesses to locate in Kentucky.
“It's a wide range of companies that have very different products, that range from equine, to bio materials, to parasite identification and tracking, to records, and that kind of thing,” he said. “It's just amazing to see how we're trying to reach such a wide variety of what the average person may not think of as agriculture.”
Ball said he hopes his experience as an educator will help him reach out to younger entrepreneurs and innovators and get them connected to the ag-tech community of investors.
Hear more with Jacob Ball later today on Eastern Standard on WEKU.
