Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Over the last decade, the rural demographics of the United States have changed, and this change has impacted the farming industry. American farmers are older and aging out. Many of these farmers will retire within the next ten years without a succession or transition plan.With their retirement, a wealth of experience and knowledge is lost.The potential of losing millions of acres of farmland, combined with the aging of our farmers, has created a need to invest in the next generation of farmers who can navigate both the business and production aspects of farming. This new generation of farmers and ranchers must operate with an entrepreneurial mindset and develop a strategy combining traditional farming with technological innovations and climate-smart practices. The long-term goal of this project is to provide technical and outreach assistance to veterans and limited-resource, socially disadvantaged minority farmers and ranchers that will enhance their economic viability through entrepreneurship, business development, agricultural innovation, and climate-smart technology. Rust College, Small Farmers Agricultural Cooperative, Innovative Community Solutions, Tuskegee Honey, LLC, SEMPA Collaborative, and others are collaborating partners.?
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of this project is to provide technical and outreach assistance to veterans and limited-resource, socially disadvantaged minority farmers and ranchers that will enhance their economic viability through entrepreneurship, business development, agricultural innovation, and climate-smart technology. In addition to the long-term goals, this project has two general goals.Goal 1:Increase the number of farmers and ranchers under 40 and veteran farmers.Goal 2:To provide veteran, beginning, and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers with the tools to successfully operate a farm and ranch.
Project Methods
Several different methods will be used to accomplish the goals and objectives of this project.Specifically, this project will design and implement an aggressive educational marketing campaign to recruit new and beginning farmers.In addition, this project will also provide business management training and on-farm learning opportunities for aspiring farmers.An entrepreneurship and business development program will also be implemented to educate the targeted audience on strategies for diversifying their operations by incorporating agritourism enterprises. Lastly, this project will provide commercial drone training.In terms of evaluation, participatory, formative, and summative evaluation methods will be used. Formative evaluation methods will determine the participant's change in knowledge and skills and identify and address early challenges or issues. Each training session/workshop/activity will be evaluated. Summative evaluation methods will be used to measure the effectiveness and impact of the two primary goals.An external evaluator is included on the project team. Dr. Dawn Mellion-Patin will complete a formative and summative evaluation of the project.Dr. Mellion-Patin has extensive experience implementing and evaluating outreach and technical assistance programs for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. She is the former Vice Chancellor for Extension and Outreach at Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center. She is an experienced program analyst and evaluator.Inspire-Idealogy, LLC will also assist in designing an evaluation plan for Goal 1.The principal investigator will also assist.