This 1890 system wide initiative began in October of 2005 with twenty -two producers from ten states across the south. The primary focus of the Leadership Institute is to help guide small, socially disadvantage, limited-resource and/or minority (to include white females) producers through the process of become better leaders while enhancing their management skills. Five training sessions have been held thus far in the following locations: Baton Rouge, Louisiana hosted by Southern University Ag Center (two); Jackson, Mississippi hosted by Alcorn State University; Houston, Texas hosted by Prairie View A & M University; and Greensboro, North Carolina hosted by North Carolina A & T State University. Four more sessions are planned for Fall of 2006 and Spring 2007. This program is funded by the Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (OASDFR) Competitive Grant Program of the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, USDA, Grant # 2005-01138.

The second conference was held July 25 - 26, 2006 at the Southern University Ag Center. The targeted audience for this conference was small farmers, which is different from the first conference, which primarily targeted agricultural professionals. A separate tract was held for female producers to enhance their knowledge on those legal issues which affect them most as partners in the agricultural endeavors. Participant from Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas and Texas attended this conference. This initiative was a joint effort between the Southern University Ag Center and the Southern University Law Center.

A week long, residential "Kid" camp was held for 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. While here, they had the opportunity to experience what life would be like in college by staying in the dormitories and eating in the dinning halls. While the primary focus of the camp was goats, the students were also exposed to other areas of agriculture. The camp also included learning excursions to the livestock farms operated by Southern University Ag Center, the Global Wildlife Center, the Baton Rouge Zoo, and the state capitol building.

Southern University Ag Center held two organic workshops involving technical training and assisting farmers in filling out the lengthy organic certification applications (about twenty pages long). The first was held in Savannah, Georgia (July 6-8, 2006) where nine farmers from South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama completed the application and have applied for certification. Due to the demand, a second workshop was held in Columbia, South Carolina (August 10-12, 2006), and it is expected that 14 farmers from North and South Carolina (including eight African Americans) will complete the certification applications as a result of the second workshop. Cost of certification is being covered by the project. This project is a part of a collaborative project funded by USDA IFAFS (Initiative for Future Agriculture and Foods Systems) and involves 1890 universities and community based organizations throughout the south. The organic component of the project focuses on increasing the number of farmers who are certified as organic growers with particular focus on African-American farmers. Currently, several states, to include Louisiana, have no African-American farmers with organic certification. The SU Ag Center is assisting four farmers in Louisiana in obtaining organic certification, two are African Americans.