Performing Department
Food Science
Non Technical Summary
The purpose of this project is to reach beginning farmers interested in small farmspecialty crop production with a subset of modules from our Center for Arkansas Farmsand Food (CAFF)Farm School curriculum. The Farm School is an 11-month, intensivetraining program focused on building skills and confidence in farm entrepreneurismand sustainable fruit and vegetable production. The Farm School time commitmentmakes it inaccessible for many who are interested in farming. Thus we propose totailor a series (three per year) of intensive two-day short courses on foundationaltopics based on our Farm School modules. Topics include site evaluation that includesnatural resources assessment, hands-on methods for sustainable production practices,business planning and market development, and risk management, among others. Thecourses will be based at the CAFF training farm in Fayetteville, AR, and be taught byFarm School instructors. Each course includes in-field and classroom learning onsustainable production and business topics, a farm tour, and guest speakers. Weanticipate courses to be attractive to those who cannot commit to an extensiveprogram but may have access to land and resources, and those who are interested inurban farming, among others. Metrics of success include: participant numbers,changes in knowledge, skills, and confidence in the pre-post test assessment, poundsof produce donated or sold, indicated through an end-of-project evaluation. Thisproject has the potential to impact the economy by improving farmer income, theenvironment through our emphasis on regenerative methods, and society throughincreased accessibility to local foods.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
50%
Developmental
40%
Goals / Objectives
The goals of this project are to reach aspiring and beginning farmers with a series ofin-depth short courses that are based on the Center for Arkansas Farms and Food,Farm School curriculum. Seventy-five unique participants will be reached through sixshort courses over two years. Participants will be trained at the CAFF Farm School fieldand classroom facilities, in Fayetteville AR, on sustainable specialty crop productionmethods and business practices for local food markets. The project will leverageexisting resources including a tested farmer training curriculum based on experientiallearning methods, farm training facilities and instructor experiences, a strong statewideCAFF following with over 3000 Facebook followers and 1000 members in theCAFF database, and established relationships with successful local farmers and farmsupport organizations. At project completion, participants will have increasedknowledge, skills and confidence to increase their farm production with organic andregenerative methods and increase their distribution through sales or donations. Preandpost-course assessments will determine changes in knowledge and confidenceand an end-of-project evaluation will assess the impact of the trainings.
Project Methods
Objective 1. Course recruitment. CAFF has a robust communications and marketingprogram with multiple social media posts a week (4000+ followers), weekly videos onInstagram (3000 followers), and a monthly newsletter that reaches over 800subscribers. Short courses complement other CAFF programs that focus on trainingfarmers and building the network. Conversations with those in our network haveindicated that short courses are of interest because our other programs havesignificant time commitments which do not align with other responsibilities in theirlives. These courses would be appealing to those outside of the Northwest Arkansasarea because of the short duration of the training requiring a short-term stay. Weanticipate up to 25 people per course with some repeat attendance, reachingapproximately 75 unique individuals by the project's end.Objective 2. Knowledge and topic areas. The CAFF Farm School curriculum will be usedas the foundation for developing the modules for the short courses. Over three yearsof offering the Farm School, instructors have developed content and learning activitiesthat support learning objectives. A theme for each course will be identified that isseasonally relevant and will lead to focused learning objectives. Farm School moduleswill be streamlined and tailored to suit the short course format. Each course will have aholistic theme such as Market Gardening 101 which would include hands-on andclassroom production and business topics or a deep dive into a subject matter such asFarm Financials.As a result of participating in the training(s), learners will have increased knowledge,confidence, and skills in the following areas as indicated by pre and post-course tests:soil health practicesintegrated pest managementirrigation installation and managementcrop planning based on market needsmarket evaluation and building a customer basetask and labor management skillsaccess to credit and USDA programs, i.e. urban and small farms programsrecordkeeping practices for business and productionmanaging cash flow and financial statementWhole farm planningAfter each training program leaders will evaluate participant survey results, theschedule and activities and modify as needed for future trainings.Objective 3. Increased production and sales or donations. Near the end of the project(Q1, 2026) participants will be surveyed to determine impacts of the training, practicesimplemented, how their production was affected, and their sales or donations changed(based on goals) and moved toward their goals. These evaluations will be used todetermine future steps for this type of training for CAFF.