Performing Department
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Non Technical Summary
The goal of Growing Alaskan Farmers: An agricultural training program for Alaska Native people and their communities is to train a growing population of beginning Indigenous farmers in rural Alaska. This goal supports the broader vision to foster food sovereignty across Alaska by providing the training and support necessary for Alaskan villages to grow their own food. This project is an Indigenous-led, hands-on, farmer training program. Calypso Farm and Ecology Center is the lead organization, collaborating with Indigenous organizations including: Native Movement, Tlaa Deneldel, Biclops Productions and Kawerak, Inc. Calypso has been a recipient of two BFRDP grants in the past: 2016 (70017-25347) and 2020 (49400-32435). Both were focused on beginning farmer training in small-scale diversified farming. This current project was developed by beginning Indigenous farmers and piloted as part of the 2020 project.This project continues and expands Indigenous-led trainings and includes: beginning and advanced training sessions, train the trainer sessions, apprenticeships in multiple locations as well as remote courses through the winter on a range of farm planning topics. The program serves 95% Indigenous farmers which are considered "limited resource" farmers. The majority are beginning farmers with 1-3 years of experience in categories 1 and 2. Our goal is that program participants will be ready to start their farming operations after two years of training and continuing education. 90% of the funding is allocated to community-based 501(c)3 organizations and 10% of the funding is allocated to an Indigenous owned film production company.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
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Applied
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Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
Goal 1: Continue offering Calypso's Beginning Indigenous Farmer Training ProgramsGoal 2: Expand the Indigenous Farmer Training programs to include a variety continuing education and networking opportunities for beginning farmers in rural AlaskaGoal 3: Continue expanding and supporting the community of Indigenous trainers teaching in the programGoal 4: Share the Model
Project Methods
Activities to Achieve the Goals and ObjectivesGoal 1: Continue offering Indigenous-led Trainings for Beginning FarmersObjectives 1 & 2 - Provide Beginning Farmer Training with Participant FeedbackCalypso will continue offering hands-on Beginning Farmer Trainings held at Calypso Farm, in Ester, Alaska with visits to the Tlaa Deneldel site in Nenana. Based on extensive feedback and recommendations from participants, these are three-day intensive trainings where participants travel from their village communities and stay on the farm. Travel costs are covered and there is no cost to attend the trainings. These trainings each have about 10-15 participants, usually from about 5 different locations around the state. Participants camp at the farm and cook using an outdoor kitchen. All food is provided. Indigenous focused farm kid's programs are held in coordination with the trainings so that participants and instructors can bring their children and local Indigenous children have the opportunity to meet other kids from around the state. A camp fire and group kitchen area serves as our home base for open and closing talking circles and disussions. Indigenous instructors have purposefully created a space that is intergenerational, and a setting that is reminiscent of "fish camps" a familiar part of life for most Indigenous people across Alaska. The days are full of hands-on learning about soils, compost, cultivation methods, bed preparation, planting, greenhouse and hoop house management as well as special topics such as animal husbandry, growing apples in Alaska, bee keeping and seed saving. All of the programming is applicable to the small-scale, hand powered, energy and input efficient agriculture methods that are appropriate and realistic for farming in villages. These trainings have been extremely successful in motivating interested individuals in beginning agricultural project in their communities. Throughout the program, input from participants is sought and each participant also has an opportunity to give follow up input in order to continue improving the programming. The trainings provide valuable experience and exposure to basic farming techniques and an invaluable sense of community and connection to other people who have the same dreams and passions. The Beginning Farmer Training programs are a perfect starting point from which participants can choose the best continuing education path so that they can start farming successfully. Three Beginning Farmer Training sessions will be held each year, with approximately 10 people attending each. 30 total participants each year. Beginning Training sessions will be held each year.Goal 2: Provide Continuing EducationObjective 1: Provide Advanced Training SessionsAdvanced training sessions will follow the same model as the Beginning Training Sessions but they will dive deeper into topics that people are wanting more hands-on experience with. The specific topics covered in advanced sessions will be based on participant interests, surveyed the winter before. Topics may include: apple grafting and orchard management, advanced composting, specialized tools, harvesting and crop management, building passive cold storage structures, tool repair, etc. Two Advanced Training sessions will be held each year with 20 participants total each year. Advanced trainings will be offered all three years.Objective 2: Farm ApprenticeshipsPaid Farm Apprenticeships will allow participants to spend 1-3 months working on a farm that is similar to what they are hoping to start themselves. A minimum of 20 Apprentices will participate annually. They will have the opportunity to work at Calypso Farm or at a number of rural locations in order to get more extensive experience and get a feel for the day to day nature of farming in Alaska. Calypso has active partnerships with 7 villages currently and we'll continue to grow the number of partners. Any of the partner locations that wish to offer a farming apprenticeship and have adequate housing and supervision, will be eligible. Calypso will work with the host farmer and local tribal councils to insure success. Calypso has 23 years of experience running successful farming apprenticeships and will share experience and resources to insure that all of the apprenticeships will be excellent quality.Objective 3: Winter coursesVirtual zoom meetings have proven to be a great way to connect with farmers across the state. In recent years, Calypso has facilitated a virtual learning community with our rural farming partners in the winter months. All participants have been happy with the format and the value in sharing knowledge. Using this successful model, we will be offering several different virtual classes through the winter. Topics will include but not be limited to: Land Use Planning from an Indigenous Perspective, Farm Finances and Budgeting, Navigating State and Federal Resources, Crop Planning, Building Healthy Soils and more. These courses will be free and all program participants will be encouraged to attend. The courses will also be made available to anyone who would like to attend across Alaska. Winter courses will happen annually, years 1-3.Objective 4: Creating a Networking Community for Rural FarmersThroughout the winter months, Indigenous Instructors will host regular learning zooms - a minimum of 4 through the winter. Additionally, we will create a social media based group for people to share ideas, ask questions and connect with one another. We will tap into existing networks by working with Native Movement and their partners to identify the best way to create this space or expand to include agriculture networking on an existing space. Social media based networking will be established by year 2.Goal 3: Support and Grow Indigenous TrainersObjective 1: Recruit and Train New Trainers AnnuallyIndigenous Trainers are the beating heart of this project. Each year, we will hold a minimum of three, five-day training sessions for people who are interested in becoming trainers in this program. These training will take place during the two days before and three days during the Beginning Famer training sessions. New instructors will have an opportunity to learn hands-on teaching techniques and then they will have the opportunity to work alongside experienced instructors in order to gain first-hand experience training new farmers. We expect a minimum of 9 new instructors each year.Goal 4: Share the Model Objective 1: Visual StorytellingThrough our recent BFRDP grant, we worked with Indigenous Filmmaker, Gabriel Derrick. We will continue to work with Gabe on this project. Gabe has a gift for putting people at ease and became a well-loved member of all of the trainings. Through the three-year grant period, Gabe will continue to capture hands-on trainings and he will also travel to multiple village locations to profile program participants, their farms and communities. He will create short videos to be used to recruit new participants in the program and to encourage existing participants to participate in the continuing education opportunities. He will also create a short 10-15 minute film highlighting the farms that have been started and improved in connection with this Growing Alaskan Farmers training program.Objective 2: Sharing MaterialsThroughout the process of developing and implementing all of the training aspects of this project, we will keep good records so that by year three we are able to compile training materials into a format that is accessible for other entities who have shared goals.