Merced College to build $22 million agriculture innovation center for students
Merced College will soon begin construction on a $22 million AgTEC Innovation Center, a project that aims to prepare students for advanced manufacturing in agricultural food systems with access to labs for meat, nuts, fruits, vegetables, and nutrition.
Funded in part by the Fresno-Merced Future of Food (F3) initiative—along with a $15 million investment from the state made possible by Sen. Anna Caballero—the AgTEC Innovation Center, which will be the first of its kind at any California community college, is a key component of Merced College’s broader agricultural expansion.
Construction is scheduled to start soon with completion of the projected 20,000-square foot AgTEC Innovation Center expected in Fall of 2027.
“There is no other community college or even university that that has a facility like what we’re going to have,” said Cody Jacobsen, Director of Ag Innovation at Merced College. “From the full farm-to-fork movement, to the students applying the practical experience of growing the products out on our farm, to then coming into the facility and developing value-added products. There’s no other place that has that.”
The new facility will be located near the Raj Kahlon Agriculture and Industrial Technology Complex — which opened in 2022 — and houses multiple academic programs including Agriculture Business, Computer Technology, Animal Science, Computer Technology and Information Systems, Electricity/Electronics, HVAC Technology, Industrial Technology, Crop Science and Environmental Horticulture.
The AgTEC Innovation Center will feature facilities designed to support hands-on learning and industry collaboration for the over 1,200 students enrolled into agricultural classes at Merced College.
“This is the bread basket of the world,” Merced College President Chris Vitelli said. “We’ve said often when we applied for this federal grant that we feed the world. So let’s take care of one those who feed us, the farm workers that are going to need upskilling with skills and automation and robotics, and then let’s make sure the next generation of agriculturalist are well prepared on the latest and greatest technology.”
Jacobsen worked with over 200 local industry partners such as Blue Diamond, Morning Star and Harris Ranch to help design the innovation center to help best prepare students for the skills they needed to learn.
“We want to ensure that the students who are coming out of Merced College are the most prepared and the most employable young adults,” Jacobsen said.
“They met with us and they shared not only what they need in a graduate from the program right now, but what they’re going to need and what they project they’re going to need over the next decade, because technology is changing so quickly,” Vitelli added.
Students will have an opportunity to work with advanced processing equipment, allowing them to train with nut, fruit and vegetable processing equipment. They’ll also get to work with meat processioning and food safety systems similar to those used in agricultural operations.
Jacobsen says the tree nut processing lab will be the showcase.
Students will be able to work with autonomous sorters which will allow them to set the parameters on what they want like nuts with no blemishes to specific colors. The sorter will be connected to roasting machines, machines that will season nuts and coater machines for chocolate or strawberry coated nuts.
‘That’s A state of the state of the art sorting machine that Blue Diamond. runs every day,” Jacobsen said.
The new innovation center will be a hub for agricultural research and development with a nutrition facility and commercial kitchen that will help support food product innovation and testing. There will also be dedicated spaces for industry-led training, career development, and entrepreneurship opportunities.
There will also be a community farm market, which will allow students to gain agribusiness experience while providing fresh, locally grown products to customers.
“When it comes to being at the interview table for a job, (our students) have an upper hand, and that’s what we want,” Jacobsen said. “We want students to be employable. We want them to be respected, and when our industry partners are looking for their next food safety manager, they come to us first.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
