The Iowa Alliance for Cooperative Business Development was initiated through a USDA Rural Business Development grant in 2003. The Alliance combines outreach and research programs that provide rural Iowans with viable alternatives for economic development.

The goal of the Alliance is to initiate and strengthen producer cooperatives in Iowa.

The current Alliance objectives are:

• Conduct cooperative training workshops to educate directors, officers, and managers about finance, strategic management, and other issues important to cooperatives and mutually-owned businesses.
• Identify and evaluate cellulosic biomass marketing options (e.g., contracting, collective bargaining) available to producers.
• Pilot a program that sends a student team studying entrepreneurship to work with an Iowa farm supply and grain elevator cooperative to identify potential business opportunities that could lead to a new business or expansion of a current business.
• Help rural electric cooperatives and other rural economic developers identify local supply chain clusters and understand how supply chain clusters can be leveraged for rural economic development.

Achievement of these objectives will provide infrastructure and training rural Iowans need to successfully initiate and operate value-added agricultural businesses. It will also bring jobs to rural communities, provide an improved market for agricultural commodities, and create business earnings that remain in the community.