Oftentimes, agricultural institutions only focus on teaching production techniques and neglect to address the managerial requirements involved in running a successful agribusiness.

EARTH focuses on both.
To be effective agents of change, EARTH graduates must have the skills and confidence to develop their own enterprises and stimulate economic development through profitable businesses that are socially and environmentally responsible.

Developing Entrepreneurs: A Three Year Endeavor
All EARTH students are involved in the Jorge Manuel Dengo Entrepreneurial Program during their first three years. The program is designed to mirror the development phases of an agribusiness through a combination of classroom training, theoretical knowledge and experiential learning.

• Students organize themselves into teams of four to six, with no more than two students from the same country.
  
  
• Teams prepare a business plan for an environmentally and socially sustainable agribusiness.
  
  
• Students perform a feasibility study to analyze the market potential, technical requirements and environmental impact of producing the selected product.

• Student teams present their business plans and feasibility studies to a panel of professors and business people. They must be prepared to explain and defend the enterprise’s profit potential and environmental and social impact. The panel places particular value on whether the project is innovative.
  
  
• Upon approval of the business proposal, EARTH extends a loan of up to $3,000 to each team to begin operations.

• The enterprise completes at least one production, marketing and sales cycle.
  
  
• At the end of the second trimester, the company must be liquidated and, after repaying the loan and all other expenses, the profits are distributed. Team members receive 78 percent and 22 percent is returned to the loan fund.
  
  
• Teams deliver a formal debriefing of the entire process to faculty, classmates and outside business people.
  
  
• Historically, 60 percent of the entrepreneurial ventures generate a profit.

“I am a farmer with a college degree, which means I have a clear goal: to work to help my people. The entrepreneurial spirit I learned at EARTH and the way EARTH taught me to listen to other farmers, have been critical to my success.”
—Gaudencio Rodriguez, Mexico – Class of 1999

Listen to President José Zaglul discuss the Jorge Manuel Dengo Entrepreneurial Program