Recipient Organization
HMONG AMERICAN FARMERS ASSOCIATION
941 LAFOND AVE WEST STE 100
SAINT PAUL,MN 55104
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA) is requesting a Cooperative Agreement with USDA to provide outreach and technical assistance to historically underserved farmers and ranchers. Our work addresses all five priority areas: assisting farmers in owning and operating successful farms, improving the participation of underserved farmers and ranchers in USDA programs, building solid relationships between our constituency of underserved farmers and USDA staff, using innovative outreach and technical assistance techniques designed specifically for immigrant farmers to introduce agricultural information to underserved farmers and hosting program specifically designed for socially disadvantage/ underserved youth to learn about agriculture in rural areas.HAFA is an experienced 501(c)3 organization created in 2011 to give Hmong farmers in Minnesota a collective and critical voice in conversations around agriculture, food supply chains and wealth creation. The mission of the organization is to advance the economic, social and cultural prosperity of these farmers and their children and grandchildren by focusing on increasing access to land, new markets (to augment farmers markets), capital, credit, research and trainings. Unlike other organizations that may work with Hmong farmers only once or twice a year at conference workshops, HAFA works year round and has multiple interactions with its committed membership of Hmong farmers. HAFA is the only organization is Minnesota (and the only one we know if in the country) that was founded by and is led by Hmong Americans solely for the purpose of advancing Hmong farmers and their families.Inspired by HAFA, Hmong farmers and their partner organizations in several other states have contacted HAFA staff, interested to learn how they could develop a similar training program for themselves. At the same time, young members of the Hmong community whose families chose not pursue farming upon immigrating to American, are also now wanting to better understand the strong pull of farming in Hmong culture, and explore agriculture as a career. Our Project involves both increasing the depth of our existing work with farmers, and expanding our work to four new geographic areas as well as developing a special program for youth.To date, only a handful of Hmong farmers have been able to qualify for USDA or FSA programs. For immigrant farmers, the significant language and cultural barriers make participating in USDA or other public or private programs to assist small farmers largely inaccessible. Our proposal addresses the language and cultural challenge by offering programming to Hmong farmers in the Hmong language and in many cases, delivered by members of their own community - a critical factor that differentiates our programs from others and enhances our rate of long-term success.HAFA was founded by farmers from the community base being served. This history leads to stronger relationships, better participation in training events, and greater confidence that our guidance will be followed. Many other programs simply train farmers in agriculture or hand them flyers with a USDA logo on them and leave the farmers to fend for themselves; we know that immigrant farmers need an advocate and an ally in order to access USDA programs and market opportunities, and we make sure we are that advocate/ally. We are trusted allies, and well-placed to introduce immigrant farmers to the opportunities that USDA programs can offer, and guide them through the process. Our goal is to support the expansion of these underserved farmers and ranchers to become viable commercial enterprises through the delivery serviceprovidedwhile linking to USDA programs to assist in this process.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
To date, only a handful of Hmong farmers have been able to qualify for USDA or FSA programs. For immigrant farmers, the significant language and cultural barriers make participating in USDA or other public or private programs to assist small farmers largely inaccessible. Our proposal addresses the language and cultural challenge by offering programming to Hmong farmers in the Hmong language and in many cases, delivered by members of their own community - a critical factor that differentiates our programs from others and enhances our rate of long-term success.HAFA was founded by farmers from the community base being served. This history leads to stronger relationships, better participation in training events, and greater confidence that our guidance will be followed. We are trusted allies, and well-placed to introduce immigrant farmers to the opportunities that USDA programs can offer, and guide them through the process. Our goal is to support the expansion of these farms to become viable commercial enterprises through the delivery of services described in this proposal, linking to USDA programs to assist in this process.Young would-be Hmong farmers are better educated in general than elders, many having college degrees. They are more comfortable with emerging agricultural techniques such as hydroponics or vertical farming, but their biggest barrier is lack of experience. Youth also have voiced a desire to learn about Hmong agricultural practices, something that is missing in traditional beginning farmer curricula. Our project will add this element.Hmong farmers near the Twin Cities are fortunate to have HAFA. Hmong farmers at our other state sites face the additional barrier of isolation--there are few organizations dedicated to Hmong farming in the U.S., and none in Wisconsin, Washington state or Oregon, the states targeted by our project for expansion. Hmong farmers in these states must struggle with barriers on their own. Our project is intended to help them bridge the divide between traditional Hmong farming and the opportunities presented by contemporary techniques, markets, and USDA programming.HAFA's training is unique in its linguistic and cultural elements, but also unusual in other ways: our training approach addresses the needs of the whole farming family including adult children of immigrants, is inclusive of land stewardship concepts, and connects beginning producers consistently and explicitly to next-stage opportunities such as micro-loans and marketing contracts. Many other programs simply train farmers in agriculture or hand them flyers with a USDA logo on them and leave the farmers to fend for themselves; we know that immigrant farmers need an advocate and an ally in order to access USDA programs and market opportunities, and we make sure we are that advocate/ally.
Project Methods
The anticipated long term outcomes of our work is that low income, socially disadvantaged farmers will be better able to access USDA loan and grant programs, and that through these programs, socially disadvantaged farmers will increase economic stability through higher farm sales, more sales outlets, and ultimately more net income at the end of the year. Our program will acquaint these farmers with USDA programs and staff, and our training and technical assistance will help farmers to be more success farm owners and operators.Specific outcomes of each of the four objectives of our project (Increase ability of Hmong farmers to earn an income from farming; share benefits of the HAFA approach with Hmong farmers elsewhere, enhance USDA relations and program participation, and link youth to farming).Performance Measures:There are four key objectives that we will be tracking to ensure each set of activities remain on track. We will track and measure our progress in meeting these performance goals through a number of means described below:Tracking and Measuring Results:Our plan for tracking and measuring program results includes a combination of timely interim measures of progress throughout the year combined with periodic analysis of results to ensure that we are meeting expected outcomes and using resources effectively and efficiently:Output Measurement:We will track program attendees through workshop registrations and event sign-in forms. Attendees at training events will be queried regarding their knowledge of USDA resources in a pre-and post-test fashion to identify any increase in knowledge of, and receptiveness to, USDA programs, as well as identify any gaps in knowledge. These figures will be collected by HAFA field staff monthly, and submitted to the program director within 15 days of the close of each month to ensure that on-going measures are consistently tabulated individually by event and on an on-going basis for the program overall, allowing us to intervene in timely way if there are any issues.Each farmer that we work with individually will fill out an intake form to collect baseline data on farm sales, customer base and family income. We will also use these intake meetings to gather specific information about each individual farmer, so that we may better direct them to USDA programs and services that meet their needs. The number of events held and new curriculum developed are simple to measure and report quantitatively, but we will also establish qualitative measures for each, administering a program evaluation at each event. Outreach figures for radio and TV programming will come from the stations hosting the programs.We will track the number of socially disadvantaged farmers making loan applications to USDA (and if unsuccessful with USDA, to other sources) through our intensive work with individual farmers and through our ongoing relationships with local USDA staff. Each quarter, we will do an evaluation of progress in meeting each output objective, and will redirect resources accordingly if any area is lagging. In addition, our staff will maintain on an ongoing database of each farmer or farm family we work with, so as to be better able to track their individual goals and progression.Outcome measurement:HAFA will be able to document and evaluate outcomes through a robust series of social research tools including ethnographic one-to-one interviews, pre- and post- season surveys, vocal evaluations instead of written forms for illiterate participants, attendance sheets, and a 50 question in-person longitudinal survey which has been conducted by HAFA staff every year since 2012 and is given to all the farmers who work with HAFA (and will be implemented by our partner organizations as well). This survey asks questions about the farming operation, sales per acre, what crops were grown and why, what farm management practices were employed on the farm, the yield per acre, what are the hopes and fears of the farmers etc. They questions are both to ascertain financial information as well as information about social capital and farmers' self-efficacy. HAFA has already developed and implemented these evaluation tools, which have been honed in practice over the last seven years.Additionally, we will be in regular contact with state and local USDA staff to measure progress on meeting our outcome goals.