DEVELOPING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT MODELS FOR SMALL FARMLANDS

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: EVANS-ALLEN
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 0231107
• Project Start Date: Oct 1, 2012
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2017
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
KENTUCKY STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
FRANKFORT,KY 40601

Performing Department
Agriculture & Environmental Science

Non Technical Summary
In the last few decades, U.S. agriculture has been characterized by a shift toward fewer and larger farms. The farm decline rate has been much higher for minority-operated farms compared to all farms. In Kentucky, many minority-operated farms are small in size. For several decades, people who are living in farms often experience greater isolation and vulnerable economic situation and therefore, they have been looking for alternatives to diversify and maximize farm productivity. There have been many discussions about the viability of small agricultural or forest farms in Kentucky. However, there is not much research in exploring the feasibility, economic value, and marketing of these options has been done, especially in the context of small farms operated by limited resource farmers in Kentucky. There is a need for programs on survival strategies for small farmers and to increase the safety net and profitability of farms. Sustainability of the agricultural food system depends on how we make small lands more productive and resilient. This effort needs optimal decision-making framework for securing multiple-use value of lands. Land-grant universities have greater responsibility for preserving and sustaining U.S. farmlands and productivity in the 21st century. Hence, the contribution and value of this research project lies in exploring and developing alternate farm-productivity enhancement options and models suitable to underutilized, marginal and fragmented agricultural lands operated by small farmers in rural Kentucky. The proposed four-year project will develop individualized, alternative and economically viable land productivity models suitable for small farm lands. The proposed activities include: (1) creation of geodatabase of small farmlands; (2) conducting of survey; (3) Identifying of the factors influencing the land management, profitability, productivity, and sustainability; (4) developing prediction models, and (5) training of students and strengthening research and extension capacity of faculty. Various dissemination and outreach outlets are proposed to cause change in knowledge, actions or practice of agricultural farming in Kentucky. Project team will share web-interactive models with farmers in at least three land management training sessions to educate farmers about best combination of agricultural enterprises. Research findings will be presented in national conferences and at least four papers will be published in peer-reviewed journals. The impact of the project will be improved quality of agricultural research through scientific and empirical understanding of the dynamics of land properties and agricultural productivity by enhancing multiple-use values of lands for sustained agricultural production, effective and sustainable land management in response to NIFA's priority challenge area for "Global Food Security and Hunger." The research effort will contribute at state and national levels in formulating new land-use strategies, improving technology delivery systems to limited-resource landowners, and promoting sustainable agricultural productivity for the development of underserved communities.

Animal Health Component

100%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

100%

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
125	6030	3100	15%
131	6030	3100	13%
131	6199	3100	10%
601	6030	3100	15%
601	6199	3100	10%
801	6030	3100	12%
801	6199	3100	10%
903	6030	3100	15%

Knowledge Area
601 - Economics of Agricultural Production and Farm Management; 125 - Agroforestry; 801 - Individual and Family Resource Management; 903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery; 131 - Alternative Uses of Land;

Subject Of Investigation
6199 - Economy, general/other; 6030 - The farm as an enterprise;

Field Of Science
3100 - Management;

Keywords

productivity

profitability

sustainability

small farms

minority

land value

spatial

parcel data

fragmentation

land management

limited resource

african-americans

agroforestry

kentucky

spatial econometrics

Goals / Objectives
This research project addresses the current problem of under-utilization and abandonment of farmlands in Kentucky. In the last few decades, U.S. agriculture has been characterized by a shift toward fewer and larger farms. The farm decline rate has been much higher for minority-operated farms compared to all farms. Majority of the minority-operated farms are small in size and there is a need for programs to increase the safety net and profitability of these small farms.The goal of this project is to develop sustainable agricultural productivity models suitable for small, abandoned, and fragmented farmlands owned or managed by limited resource landowners in order to enhance profitability and sustainability their lands. (1)To locate and identify limited resource farmers-owned small and fragmented lands and examine their attributes and range of agricultural productivity; (2)To develop feasible agricultural productivity models (based on land and geographic attributes, household surveys, and other agricultural, forestry, and geographic data) as options to be considered by limited resource landowners with small acreages; (3)To strengthen the education, research and outreach capacity of the CAFSSS through improved faculty and Extension staff and student training, collaboration, enhanced curriculum and quality research. The expected outputs are: recruited graduate and undergraduate students, digitized landownership maps and landowners' database,developed land cover and fragmentation matrices,developed land productivity and web-interactive simulation models, prepared educational training materials, revised courses/curricula,developed four publications and presentations, training of two graduate students, training of eight undergraduate students in GIS and geospatial data development,enhanced geospatial labs with geospatial data and software,increased productivity of farms in the underserved communities with value-added products, retention of farms, willingness of youths to engage in farming, improved awareness about multiple use values of land, enhanced research and extension capacity of faculty, improved productivity and increased retention of farmlands, functional land management plan by limited resource farmers for optimum use of farmland, strengthened and focused research on minority owned farms, improved relationship between farmers, agencies and KYSU, improved quality of agricultural research through scientific and empirical understanding of the dynamics of land properties and agricultural productivity, produced competitive minority workforce in the country.

Project Methods
The activities are grouped into five major tasks. The first task involves creation of geodatabase of small farmlands. Minority population dominant counties and farms owned by limited resource and small farmers will be identified. A digital database of the owners of small acreage parcels will be derived from the digitized parcel map from the selected counties. The corresponding land cover maps of those land-holdings will be derived from the classified images of high resolution satellite images recorded in 2010. This database will also be used to identify and locate a range (high, medium, low) of productive lands as well as recently fragmented or consolidated parcels in the study region. Task 2 activities involve conducting of survey. The spatial database of landowners who own less or equal to 250 acres in the study region will be used to identify the pool of landowners to be surveyed and whose properties will be closely analyzed. We will survey 300 landowners selected randomly and spatially from the land parcels. The information from the survey will be combined with the data collected from Task 1 of the land and spatial information. Task 3 activities include analyzing data. The purpose of the data analysis is to identify the factors influencing the land management, profitability, productivity, and sustainability. Spatial econometrics will be applied to identify and evaluate the factors that affect farm productivity, profitability, and sustainability. Task 4 involves prediction of profitability, productivity, and sustainability of small farms. Sensitivity analysis (using land quality, farm management skills, market information, and resources) will be conducted to find how sensitive profitability and productivity are in response to land variables and spatial variables. This analysis will estimate agricultural productivity given the level of land fragmentation and farmers/farm characteristics. The overlay of land-cover maps, profitability, productivity, and sustainability maps, land ownership maps, and maps of the information from surveys will be used to develop web-interactive maps. Task 5 involves training students and strengthening research and extension capacity of faculty. In addition to two faculty, two graduate and two undergraduate students (each year) will obtain academic, research, and outreach training. Students will be trained on the use of GIS in digitizing landownership maps and computing land fragmentation and land-cover indices. Various dissemination and outreach outlets are proposed to cause change in knowledge, actions or practice of agricultural farming in Kentucky. Project team will share web-interactive models with farmers in at least three land management training sessions to educate farmers about best combination of agricultural enterprises based on the results of the simulation models of farm productivity. Research findings will be presented in national conferences and at least four papers will be published in peer-reviewed journals.

Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of this project are small-scale farmers, ranchers, producers, and landowners; students; and other stakeholders who are directly or indirectly involved in agricultural production and farm management and research. Changes/Problems:There were some changes in the project objectives and expected outcomes due to a delay in hiring graduate students with interests and competency in econometric models and statistical analysis as well as unavailability of expected data in digital form. Ms. Cynthia Rice developed a thesis project about food security perceptions and its relation to farm practices, which was not originally stipulated in the grant objectives. However, her research was valuable and timely research. The results are expected to assist in KSU's education and outreach efforts. Responses to the farm productivity survey was relatively low and we had to spend additional time for follow-up surveys, which delayed data analysis. The PI was able to spend an average of about 0.5 FTE during the five-year project period due to his additional responsibilities in implementing five other active grants funded by the National Science Foundation and USDA/NIFA Capacity Building Grants. The project was extended for one year until September 2017. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project provided partial salary and travel support for the PI and students for research and attending conferences and workshops. The PI and students attended professional society meetings and presented research papers, networked with other scientists and faculty for developing collaborative grants, and recruited graduate students. The PI participated in five professional development training workshops and over one dozen professional conferences during the reporting period, including the Summer Leadership Institute, Integration of GIS in Climate Data, and study of sediment cores for paleoclimate study, ice core analysis for climate change studies, etc. The PI has been involved in serving on SARE and USDA/NIFA proposal review panels. The PI Gyawali has been collaborating continuously with faculty from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Louisiana State University, and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville for developing multiple USDA/NIFA- and NSF-funded grants, five of which are active. PI Gyawali advised seven undergraduate research assistants on their experiential research projects. PI Gyawali was awarded an Excellence in Research award by the Southern Rural Sociological Association (SRSA) in 2014. His students also received multiple awards for posters and paper presentations. The PI, in collaboration with the KSU/CAFSSS Small Farm Program, organized six agribusiness and land management workshops in Hopkinsville, Somerset, Cumberland, and Prestonsburg, KY, and at Kentucky State University during the reporting period. PI Gyawali and his graduate students provided presentations about use of online resources in farm management. Graduate students and staff presented papers and posters at multiple conferences, such as the National Small Farms Conference in Virginia Beach, VA; the Southern Rural Sociological Society Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX; Kentucky Academy of Science (KAS), and Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP) annual meetings. The grant funds were also used to purchase laptops, parcel data, and hand-held instruments for water quality, soil and vegetation data collection and analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The project team involved in various dissemination and outreach activities by engaging in discussions with many small-scale farmers during informal forums of the annual Small Farmers Conference and KSU's Third Thursday Thing Sustainable Agriculture Workshop meetings, the Small and Socially Disadvantaged Producers (SSDP) grant workshops, focus group discussions and professional conferences, publications, and presentation of graduate students' thesis results. The PI and students developed a SSDP newsletters and a map book to use for education purposes. Four peer-reviewed paper/proceedings were published and three are in review. The team has also given oral and poster presentations at professional conferences and workshops to share the results of this research. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For Objective 1, we finished updating the addresses of small farmers in central Kentucky to establish regular contacts with them to address their farm management needs. We compiled geographic and farm attributes of 450 farm locations. This database has been used for selecting samples for surveys. A map book was also developed. This book includes land cover change maps for many counties in Kentucky with a large number of small-scale farms. This has been helpful for education and outreach uses. During the project period, over a dozen papers and presentations by the PI and graduate students, Mr. Rosny Jean, Mr. Andrew Gott, and Ms. Cynthia Rice were given at the Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP), the Kentucky Academy of Science (KAS), the Association of 1890 Research Directors (ARD) biannual symposium, the Southern Rural Sociological Association (SRSA), National Small Farmers Conference, Kentucky Small Farms Annual Conference, Association of American Geographers, and the Rural Sociological Society (RSS). Please see the list of presentations in the products section. The census database of the NASS/USDA compiled over the last 30 years shows that the change in the average number of farm and the average size of farm have opposite trends. The data show that the average size of farm increased since 1982 from 140 acres/farm to 169 acres/farm whereas the number of farms declined from 101,642 to 77,064 and that about 25,000 farms disappeared from business within the 30-year time period in Kentucky. For Objective 2, two surveys were conducted to understand farm efficiency, sustainability, and diversification as well as to understand food security and farm management perceptions of farmers. One thousand producers throughout Kentucky were surveyed with the assistance from National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Of these, about 460 (46%) farmers responded the survey. A graduate student Mr. Bijesh Mishra (partially supported by this grant) used the survey data to develop his thesis. Ms. Cynthia Rice, another graduate student, conducted a survey to understand perceptions about food safety and security issues among small-scale farmers. Data from 125 surveys was utilized for her thesis (Ms. Rice will graduate in May 2018). These surveys suggest farmers intend to improve and continue agriculture practices they have currently adopted in the future with more emphasis on production of organic fruit and vegetables. The majority of farmers rated their farms as sustainable. Of 31 identified sustainable agriculture practices adopted by Kentucky farmers, a single farmer has adopted up to 28 different practices. Farmers who have not adopted sustainable practices reported a lack of knowledge and difficulty in implementation as the major reasons for not adopting sustainable agriculture practices. The survey data also suggest farmers are interested to add high-value crops, such as medicinal, industrial and energy crops, for diversifying their farm. Compilation of secondary data from multiple sources, including the Agricultural Census, the National Land Cover Dataset, and other resources about farm value, productivity, and land use change are compiled in a map book. A paper titled "A model using farm cooperative strategies to promote small farmlands capacity for growth" was published in Southern Journal of Economics in 2015. A second paper, titled "Understanding relationship between farm productivity farm attributes, and demographics in Kentucky," is under preparation. The data compiled in the map book suggests that forested land is the largest class by far, occupying about half the area, followed by the pasture class occupying about a quarter. The smallest parts are occupied by the water and the urban classes. In terms of change, the urban area increased by 5 times in the period from 1992 to 2001, then stabilized later. The barren area increased by almost twice, then stabilized later. Cropland lost about 30% and increased slightly later. Of the 1000 farmers interviewed, very few farmers responded to the question about land cover change in their farmland. Of 230 good surveys (i.e. surveys in which farmers reported their acres of farmland), few farmers reported that their land has changed from forested land to pasture. Four farmers reported that their land has been converted into cropland from forested land. Eight farmers have changed their cropping patterns and 5 farmers intensified crop productivity in order to improve productivity. Land cover change was multidirectional as all three forms of land have been converted into another form. However, the net conversion data show that conversion of forested land into crop land, pasture into forested land, and crop land to pasture all show a trend to increase. The conversion of forested land to crop land and conversion of pasture to forested land was almost the same, which shows that land cover in the forested class remained virtually the same in 2014. However, the higher rate of conversion of crop land to pasture transition than any other conversion shows that pasture land is increasing. Farmers were also surveyed about the possible reasons for changing their land cover into different forms by providing them options for possible reasons. Very few farmers responded to this section. The survey suggested that the traditional land use system is not profitable. Farmers reported crops or soybean became more profitable and that government regulation was one of the main reasons for changing their land cover use. Questions related to farm efficiency also had very poor response rates as these questions related to income and expenses of farm. Among reported costs, higher average amounts were spent in livestock purchases and for mortgage/loan payments for farms, equipment, and cost of fertilizers, lime, and soil conditioners. The amount spent for livestock purchases was above $100,000 whereas other expenses listed above were between $70,000 to $75,000. The least amount of money spent was reported for permits, business licenses and business fees, and electricity, which were below $10,000. Farmers reported on average of 116 hours/week in paid labor and about 40 hours/week of average operational labor used on their farm, which were reported by 102 and 138 farmers, respectively. For Objective 3, the PI used project data from Objective 1 in teaching and students research projects, such as the farm value change GIS data, agricultural production and location of small farms, and land cover change data of Kentucky. The PI's GIS students have used these data for their research projects. The PI was the major advisor for eight graduate students from 2013-2017; seven of these students have graduated at this time. The project team was involved in dissemination and outreach activities by engaging in discussions with many small farmers during the Small Farmers Conference and KSU's Third Thursday Thing Sustainable Agriculture Workshop meetings, the Small and Socially Disadvantaged Producer (SSDP) grant workshop, the National Small Farms Conferences, and KY Small Farms Annual Conference. The PI (Gyawali) organized multiple sessions of "Economics of Small Farms and Online Resources" in 2016 KY Small Farms Conference. Economics professors Drs. Assibey Mensah and Abdul Turay (collaborators on the project), student Ms. Cynthia Rice, and research assistant Mr. Jeremy Sandifer provided presentations related to economic principles of farm management, cost-benefit analysis, use of online resources, and use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) in farm resource assessment, monitoring of plant health and fertilizer use, and detection of open spaces for farm management. The PI was successful in bringing over $1.7 million in competitive grants from the National Science Foundation, USDA/AFRI, and USDA/RD during the project period.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Rice C., Gyawali, B., Simon, M., Rivers, L. Small Farms: Alternatives to Meet New Challenges from Changing Climate Conditions. National Small Farms Conference Proceedings, January 2017.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Shrestha, P., Sharma, R., Gyawali, B. R., Carlisle, E., Hopkins, D. (2017). A pilot study to explore the possibility of combining field and remotely sensed data for agricultural resources management. SSRG International Journal of Agriculture & Environmental Science. 4:32-35.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Gyawali, B., Turay, A., Sandifer, J., Rice, C. Economics of Small Farms and Online Resources. Kentucky Small Farms Conference, Frankfort, KY, November 15-17, 2016.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Gyawali, B., Jean, R. Exploration of Adoption of Computer-Based Technology among Small Farmers in Kentucky. 79th Annual Meeting of Rural Sociological Society, Toronto, Canada, August 7-10, 2016.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Rice C., Gyawali, B., Sandifer, J. Geographic Information Systems in Agricultural Production: Use of Story Maps, Map Books, and Other Benefits of GIS. Association of 1890 Research Directors (ARD) Research Symposium 2017, Atlanta, GA, April 2, 2017.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mishra, B., Gyawali, B., Simon, M. Exploring Adoption of Sustainable Agriculture Practices in Kentucky using Poisson Regression Model. Oral Presentation. Association of 1890 Research Directors (ARD) Research Symposium 2017, Atlanta, GA, April 2, 2017.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Rice C., Gyawali, B., Simon, M. Using GIS to Create Map Books for Farm Planning and Development. Southern Rural Sociological Society (SRSS) Annual Meeting, Mobile, AL, February 4-6, 2017.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gyawali, B., Shrestha, P., Sandifer J., et al. Coal-mining, reclamation and microclimate variation: A geospatial perspective in understanding human-environment relationships in Kentuckys Appalachia. Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, April 8, 2017.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gyawali, B., Mishra, B., Simon, M. Farm Succession and Future of Farming in Kentucky. Association of 1890 Research Directors (ARD) Research Symposium 2017, Atlanta, GA, April 2, 2017.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Sariyildiz, O., Gyawali, B., Siemen, K., Shrestha, P. Trout Aquaculture Feasibility at reclaimed coal mines sites in Eastern Kentucky. 2017 Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, April 8, 2017.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Rice C., Gyawali B., Simon M. Food Security, Farmers and the Government: Small, Socially, Disadvantaged Producers (farmers/gardeners) and food security within context of resource in an emergency. Southern Rural Sociological Society (SRSS) Annual Meeting, Mobile, AL, February 4-6, 2017.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Rice C., Gyawali B., Simon M. Farmers, climate change, permaculture and the need to know their farms geographic properties. Southern Sustainable Agriculture Group (SWAG) Annual Conference, Lexington, KY. January 27-28, 2017.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Rice, C., Gyawali, B., Sandifer, J. Using the Land You Have To Be A Successful Small Farmer. Kentucky Academy of Science Annual conference, Louisville, KY, November 7-8, 2016.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Rice, C., Gyawali, B., Sandifer, J. (November 2016). Story Maps: Getting Information to More Farmers/Producers More Efficiently. Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals Annual Conference, Covington, KY, October 17-19, 2016.

Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience of this project is small farmers, ranchers, producers and landowners, students, and other stakeholders who are directly or indirectly involved in agricultural activities. Changes/Problems:There are some changes in the project objectives and expected outcomes due to a delay in hiring of graduate students with interests and competency in econometric models and statistical analysis and unavailability of expected data in digital form. Ms. Cynthia Rice is developing a thesis project about food security perceptions and its relation to farm practices, which is not directly related to the original research objectives of the grant. However, her research will be very valuable and is timely in educating farmers about best farm practices and knowledge about food security. Responses to the farm productivity survey was relatively low and we had to spent additional time performing follow-up on the survey, which delayed data analysis. PI was able to spend only 0.5 FTE during the reporting period due to his additional responsibilities in implementing four active grants funded by National Science Foundation and USDA/NIFA Capacity Building Grants. Due to these conditions, we have requested a no-cost extension for one year (until September 2017). What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided support for professional development activities for the PI and students through attending conferences and workshops, networking with other scientists and faculty for developing collaborative grants, and the recruitment of graduate students. The PI attended three professional development training workshops and three professional conferences during the reporting period including the Summer Leadership Institute, Integration of GIS in Climate Data, and study of sediment cores for a paleoclimatic study. The PI has been involved in serving on Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) and USDA/NIFA proposal review panels. PI Gyawali has been collaborating with faculty from University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Louisiana State University, and University of Tennessee-Knoxville for implementing five USDA/NIFA and NSF funded, active grants. PI Gyawali advised five undergraduate research assistants for their experiential research projects. The PI in collaboration with KSU/CAFSSS Small Farm Program organized two agribusiness and land management workshops in Prestonsburg and Frankfort, Kentucky during the reporting period. PI Gyawali and a graduate research assistant Ms. Cynthia Rice provided presentations about use of online resources in farm management. Graduate students Ms. Rice and Mr. Bijesh Mishra presented papers and posters in multiple conferences, such as the National Small Farms Conference, the Southern Rural Sociological Society annual meeting, the Kentucky Academic of Science (KAS), and Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP) annual meetings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The project team has been involved in various dissemination and outreach activities by engaging in discussions with many small farmers during informal forums of the annual Small Farmers Conference and KSU's Third Thursday Thing (a monthly sustainable agriculture workshop targeting small farmers, beginning farmers and agricultural professionals) meetings, Small and Socially Disadvantaged Producers (SSDP) grant workshops, focus group discussions and professional conferences, and through publications and presentation of graduate student thesis results. The PI and students developed a SSDP newsletter and distributed it to the stakeholders. One peer-reviewed paper was published. The team has also given oral and poster presentations at professional conferences and workshops sharing the results of this research. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the next reporting period, October 2016 to September 2017, we plan to finish analyzing farm productivity and sustainability surveys and use data for a thesis and publications. Mr. Bijesh Mishra will graduate in May 2017. Ms. Cynthia Rice will also conduct surveys for her thesis research to explore food security perceptions and land management practices among Kentucky farmers. She is expected to graduate in December 2017. We will also purchase digitized parcel data for 10 additional counties from county Property Valuation Administrator offices and create a geodatabase of farm attributes to utilize in spatially explicit land management models. Two papers will be submitted for peer-reviewed publications. Ms. Rice will also develop map books and present at a national conference. Three presentations will be developed using the results from survey and secondary data and presented in Association of Research Directors Symposium in Atlanta, KAS, and KAMP. One session will be organized during the Kentucky Small Farms Conference to share the results of farm productivity and sustainability survey and to educate farmers about the economics of farm management. The PI and co-PI will be involved in student recruitment, advising and mentoring, as well as developing competitive grants to submit to the USDA. The PI will attend at least two professional development events. A final report of the project will be prepared and submitted to USDA.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For Objective 1, a graduate student, Ms. Cynthia Rice (hired in summer 2015) have been working on multiple tasks. She finished geocoding addresses for small farmers in central Kentucky to establish regular contacts with them and to allow follow-up to address their farm management needs. She compiled geographic, market, and farm attributes of 450 farm locations. She has been developing map books for education and outreach use. During the reporting period, she presented multiple papers at the National Small Farmers Conference, the Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP), the Kentucky Academy of Science (KAS), and the Southern Rural Sociological Association (SRSA) annual conference. For Objective 2, a farm sustainability and efficiency survey was completed. One thousand producers throughout Kentucky were surveyed to understand their views on farm efficiency, diversification, and sustainability. Of these, about 460 (46%) farmers responded the survey. Responses have been analyzed. Preliminary analysis suggests that respondents are interested in reducing their use of synthetic and commercial chemicals. In addition, farmers intend to continue agriculture practices they have currently adopted in future. The majority of farmers rated their farms sustainable or highly sustainable. Out of 31 sustainable agriculture practices used by Kentucky farmers identified with this survey, one farmer has adopted up to 28 different practices. Farmers who have not adopted sustainable practices reported a lack of knowledge and difficulty in implementation as major reasons for not using sustainable agriculture practices. The preliminary survey data also suggest farmers are interested in adding high-value crops, vegetable crops, field crops, medicinal crops, and industrial and energy crops for diversifying their farm. Compilation of secondary data from multiple agricultural censuses, the National Land Cover Dataset, and other resources about farm value, productivity, and change in land use is near completion and will be used to create map books and presentations and to develop publications for peer-reviewed journals. A paper entitled "A model using farm cooperative strategies to promote small farmlands capacity for growth" was published in Southern Journal of Economics in 2015. A second paper, "Understanding relationship between farm productivity farm attributes, and demographics in Kentucky," is being prepared for submission. For Objective 3, the PI has used project data such as farm value change GIS data, agricultural production and location of small farms, and land cover change data of Kentucky in the classroom setting while teaching Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and for student class and research projects,. The PI is currently the major advisor for three graduate students (Cynthia Rice, Bijesh Mishra, and Oguz Sariyildiz) and three graduate students advised by the PI graduated in the reporting period: Andrew Gott, Jennifer Hubbard-Sanchez, and Henry Garrett William all graduated in December 2015. The project team was involved in dissemination and outreach activities by engaging in discussions with many small farmers during the Small Farmers Conference and KSU's Third Thursday Thing (meetings, Small and Socially Disadvantaged Producer (SSDP) grant workshop. Dr. Gyawali organized a session "Economics of Small Farms and Online Resources" in 2016 KY Small Farms Conference. Drs. Abdul Turay (Professor of Economics), Ms. Cynthia Rice, and Mr. Jeremy Sandifer provided presentations related to economic principles of farm management, cost-benefit analysis, use of online resources, and use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) in farm resource assessment, monitoring of plant health and fertilizer use, and the detection of open spaces for farm management.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Mensah A. and B. Gyawali. (2015). A model using farm cooperative strategies to promote small farmlands capacity for growth. Southwestern Journal of Economics. XI (1):60-82.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Poudyal, N. C., D. Elkins, N. P. Nibbelink, H. K. Cordell, and B. Gyawali. (2016). An exploratory spatial analysis of hotspots of projected population growth, natural land loss, and climate change in the conterminous United States. Land Use Policy. 51: 325-334.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2016 Citation: Educating small farmers, workshops to help you get started: Small Farms: Alternatives to Meet New Challenges From Changing Climate Conditions. 7th National Small Farms Conference Proceedings. September 20-22, 2016, Virginia Beach, VA.

Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience of this project is small farmers, ranchers, producers and landowners, students, and other stakeholders who are directly or indirectly involved in agricultural activities. Changes/Problems:There are some changes in the project objectives and expected outcomes due to delay in hiring of graduate students and unavailability of expected data in digital form. Parcel data for many counties were not available for free in the digitized form. Some parcel data will be purchased. Survey on land productivity and sustainability could not be sent in time due to a delay in USDA-NASS's administrative paperwork for contractual arrangement. PI was able to spend only .2 FTE during the reporting period due to his additional responsibilities in implementing other 4 grants. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has continuously provided support for the PI and students for professional development activities for attending conferences and professional development workshops. The PI and students were supported to attend professional society meetings and present research papers, network with other scientists and faculty for developing collaborative grants, and recruit graduate students. The PI attended two research skill development training workshops, and three professional conferences during the reporting period. The PI has been attending KY Geographic Information Advisory Council meetings that advise the governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in Geospatial data development, research, and training in Kentucky. The PI has been continuously involved in serving on SARE, USDA/NIFA, and NSF proposal review panels. PI Gyawali has been continuously collaborating with faculty from University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Alabama A&M University, Louisiana State University, and University of Tennessee-Knoxville for implementing the USDA/NIFA and NSF funded five active grants. PI Gyawali advises 10 undergraduate research assistants for their experiential research projects. The PI in collaboration with KSU/CAFSSS Small Farm Program organized three Agribusiness and land management workshops in Corbin, Jamestown, and Prestonsburg, and two field days in Glasgow and Hopkinsville, Kentucky during the reporting period. PI Gyawali and Cynthia Rice provided presentations about use of maps and online resources in farm management. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The project team has been involved in various dissemination and outreach activities by engaging in discussions with many small farmers during informal forums of the annual Small Farmers Conference and KSU's Third Thursday Thing meetings, SSDP workshops, focus group discussions and professional conferences, publications and thesis. The PI and students developed a SSDP newsletter and distributed to the stakeholders. One thesis and one peer-reviewed paper were developed. The team has also utilized oral and poster presentations in professional conferences, workshops for sharing the results of this research. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the next reporting period October 2015 to September 2016, we plan to send 1000 farm productivity and sustainability surveys to 1000 farmers in Kentucky and use data for thesis and publications. We will also purchase digitized parcel data for 20 counties from county PVA offices and create geodatabase of their farm attributes to utilize in spatially explicit land management models. Two new papers will be submitted for peer-reviewed publications. Cynthia Rice will develop a thesis. Three presentations will be developed using the results from survey and secondary data. The PI and Co-PI will continuously be involved in student recruitment, advising and mentoring, as well as developing competitive grants to submit to USDA. At least one such proposal will be submitted. The PI will attend at least two professional development events.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For Objective 1, a graduate student, Rosny Jean (hired in August 2013) completed his thesis research and graduated in May 2015. His thesis research was related to adoption of computer-based technology (CBTs) in agricultural farmland management in Central Kentucky. This study analyzed the factors that influence farmers in adopting computer-based technology in managing their agricultural farmland in Central Kentucky. The thesis specifically examined the benefits of CBTs between those applying it in their practices and those who do not; and analyzed the factors that influenced the adoption of CBTs in agricultural farm management. Data from 315 surveys were analyzed using a binary logistic model. Results suggested that the higher the farmer's education level, the more likely he or she will use CBT. Younger farmers are more likely to use CBT than older farmers, and the more acres a farmer owns, the more likely s/he will use CBTs. A second graduate student Ms. Cynthia Rice was hired in summer 2015. She has been working on geocoding the small farmers' data base and integrating mapping techniques for farmland management. She is compiling geographic, market, and farm attributes of 450 farmers' farm locations that have already been geocoded, which was completed in the last reporting period. She has been involved in developing web- interactive geospatial story maps of farmland management to use for education and outreach. She has submitted two abstracts to present her results in Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP) and Kentucky Academy of Science (KAS) conferences in October and November, 2015, respectively. For Objective 2, a farm sustainability and efficiency survey was developed to explore farm, geographic, and market attributes to develop optimum land management models. These surveys will be sent to 1,000 randomly selected farmers from across the state of Kentucky. National Agricultural Statistical Service (NAAS), Louisville Office has been contracted to send out the surveys. Secondary data about farm value, productivity, and land use change are being compiled from Agricultural Census, National Land Cover Dataset, and other resources for creating maps and developing papers and publications. Mr. Bijesh Mishra, a graduate research assistant, has compiled such data and is preparing a research paper to present at Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP) and Kentucky Academy of Science (KAS) conferences in October and November, 2015, respectively. The PI and Co-PI (Albert Assibey-Mensah) submitted a paper "A Model using Farm cooperative Strategies to promote small farmlands capacity for growth" to a Southern Journal of Economics, which is currently under review. For Objective 3, the PI has continuously used project data from objective 1 during teaching, such as farm value change GIS data, agricultural production and location of small farms, and land cover change data of Kentucky. The PI's GIS students have used such data for their research projects. The PI has been a major advisor for eight graduate students' thesis research projects (Rosny Jean, Marshawn Thomas, Andrew Gott, Jennifer Hubbard-Sanchez, Henry Garrett William, Bijesh Mishra, Ronnie Payton, and Cynthia Rice) during the reporting period. Marshawn Thomas and Rosny Jean graduated in May 2015. Andrew Gott, Jennifer Sanchez, and Henry Garrett William are planning to defend their theses and graduate in December 2015. The project team was involved continuously in dissemination and outreach activities by engaging in discussions with many small farmers during the Small Farmers Conference and KSU's Third Thursday Thing meetings, Small and Socially Disadvantaged Producer (SSDP) grant workshops. Dr. Gyawali collaborated with Dr. Krishna P. Paudel, for a paper "Web- Based Survey, Calibration, and Economic Impact Assessment of Spending in Nature Based Recreation" which was published in Environmental Economics Journal. Dr. Gyawali compiled a SSDP Newsletter "Cultivating Change" compiling information about cost-share programs, highlights of land management education and outreach workshops, focus group discussions, and small farm conferences. These newsletters were distributed via mail, email, and websites. Cynthia Rice and Buddhi Gyawali (PI) gave multiple presentations in SSDP workshops about use of online resources and maps for sustainable farm management.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Paudel Krishna, Devkota Nirmala, & Gyawali Buddhi2015. Web-based survey, calibration, and economic impact assessment of spending in nature based recreation. Environmental Economics, Vol 6 (1):25-32. Available online http://businessperspectives.org/journals_free/ee/2015/ee_2015_01_Paudel.pdf.
• Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Rosny Jean. 2015. Analysis of Adoption of Computer Based Technology in Agricultural Farmland in Central Kentucky. A Thesis, Kentucky State University. Thesis Advisor: Buddhi Gyawali.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Sarr Sait, B. Gyawali, S. Banerjee. 2015. Analysis of Participation of Small Farmers in Kentucky Cost-Share Programs. 45th Annual Meeting of Southern Agricultural Economics Association, Atlanta, GA January 31-February 3, 2015. Available at http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/196992/2/GyawaliEtAl_poster_SAEA2015.pdf
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Jean Rosny, B. Gyawali, M. Simon, A. Mensah. 2015. Analysis of Adoption of Computer-based Technology in Agricultural Farmland in Central Kentucky. A research paper presented at Southern Rural Sociological Association Annual meeting, Atlanta, GA January 31-Fbruary 2, 2015
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Sarr Sait, B. Gyawali, S. Banerjee. Analysis of Participation of Small Farmers in Kentucky Cost-Share Programs. A poster presented at 45th Annual Meeting of Southern Agricultural Economics Association, Atlanta, GA January 31-Fbruary3, 2015.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2014 Citation: Gott Andrew and B. Gyawali. 2015. Exploring the relationship between coal mining and land cover change in the Appalachian region. A research paper presented at Kentucky Academic of Science Annual conference. November 15, 2014, Lexington, Ky.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2015 Citation: A Model using Farm cooperative Strategies to promote small farmlands capacity for growth. Southern Journal of Economics.

Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience of this project is small farmers, ranchers, producers and landowners, students and other stakeholders who are directly or indirectly engaged in agricultural and forestry activities. Changes/Problems: There are some changes in the project objectives and expected outcomes due to delay in hiring of graduate students and unavailability of expected data in digital form. Parcel data for many counties were not available for free in the digitized form. Survey on land productivity and farm management models could not be conducted in time due to deviation in the graduate student's thesis research interests and his lack of adequate skills and preparation on economics, and land management modeling. A new graduate student with matching research interests has been identified. The student will be involved in conducting household surveys with the assistance from NASS. The data generated from the surveys will be utilized to study farm productivity and diversification. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project provided many opportunities for PI and Co-PI's professional development activities by providing financial support for attending conferences and professional development trainings. Both of them were supported to attend professional society meetings and present research papers, network with other scientists and faculty for developing collaborative grants, and recruit graduate students. As a result of collaborations in this project, the PI developed and secured five competitive grant proposals and secured approximately 1.7 million during the reporting period for enhancing his research skills, students training and experiential research opportunities, and creating geodatabase of farmlands. Two of these grants were developed in collaboration with faculty from Louisiana State University and University of Tennessee-Knoxville. The PI received two professional awards- (1) Excellence in Research Award from Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists/ Southern Rural Sociological Association (February 2014), and Outstanding Research Award from KSU-College of Agriculture Food Science & Sustainable Systems in December 2013. The PI attended three research skill development training workshops, and three professional conferences during the reporting period. Kentucky Governor Steven Beshear has appointed the PI Gyawali as a member of the KY Geographic Information Advisory Council for three years to advise in Geospatial data development, research and training in Kentucky. The PI is involved in serving on SARE and USDA/NIFA proposal review panels. PI Gyawali has collaborated with faculties from University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Alabama A&M University, Louisiana State University and University of Tennessee-Knoxville for survey development, students training and development of manuscripts. PI Gyawali also been involved in establishment of Eddy Covariance instrumentation for monitoring microclimate at KSU's Research Farm. This instrumentation has been helpful for the project team and students for integrating microclimate data into their research projects, students' experiential research on role of microclimate variability in small farm productivity and management. Four AFE undergraduate research assistants (Cynthia Rice, Sait Sarr, Jonica Clay, and Vilcise Tima) were trained on concepts and various types of research, conducting literature reviews and search of peer-reviewed articles using different search engines and summarizing them. PI Gyawali has been involved in compiling community development indicators and reporting them to southern-Program Leadership Network (PLN) annual meetings. A manuscript was submitted in collaboration with a faculty from Louisiana State University during the reporting period. The PI and Co-PI organized an Agribusiness workshop in Hopkinsville, KY, July 29-30, 2014 for small farmers and provided training on use of maps in farm management and economics of small farms and developing a business plan. Dr. Gyawali has attended several online training workshops and webinars to enhance his teaching and research skills in GIS and Remote Sensing field. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The project team has been involved in various dissemination and outreach activities by engaging in discussions with many small farmers during informal forums of the annual Small Farmers Conference and KSU's Third Thursday Thing meetings, workshops, and conferences. The team has also utilized oral and poster presentations in professional conferences, workshops, and KSU's brown bag series for sharing the results of this research. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Over the next reporting period October 2014 to September 2015, we plan to develop a database for research from surveys and secondary sources related to small farms production, retention, diversification and sustainability and use data for publications and presentations. A survey in collaboration with National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will be conducted with small farmers for a graduate thesis project. Two new papers will be submitted for peer-reviewed publications. Rosny Jean, a graduate student, will finish his thesis and graduate in May 2015. Two focus group discussions and two small farm workshops will be organized in the Eastern and Western parts of Kentucky. Two presentations will be developed using the results from survey and secondary data. The PI and Co-PI will continuously be involved in student recruitment, advising and mentoring, as well as developing competitive grants to submit to USDA/AFRI/NIFA, NSF, and NASA. At least three such proposals will be submitted. The PI will attend at least two professional development events.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For Objective 1, a new graduate student, Rosny Jean (hired in August 2013), worked directly under this project and developed and presented his thesis proposal in August 2014. We geocoded the small farmers database in Kentucky to use for surveys. A total of 450 farmers' farm locations were identified and geocoded. The list was used to send out surveys. Additional farmers' addresses are being sought and geocoded. An undergraduate student, Cynthia Rice, has been assisting in compiling and geocoding the farm database. Additional information is being sought for finalizing the land productivity survey. Secondary data about farm value, productivity and land use change are being compiled from Agricultural Census, National Land Cover Dataset, and other resources for creating maps and developing papers and publications. Mr. Rosny Jean, a graduate research assistant, is compiling these data and creating a geodatabase. For Objective 2, a comprehensive set of survey questions were developed in July 2014 to understand participation of small farmers in government programs in Kentucky. The information collected is being used to improve the comprehensive survey for exploring farm productivity survey. An Agribusiness Workshop for Small Socially Disadvantaged Producers was conducted in Hopkinsville, KY on July 30, 2014. The PI and Co-PI (Albert Assibey-Mensah) and undergraduate research assistant Cynthia Rice provided presentations about use of maps in farm management, and economics of small farms. About thirty-five small farmers attended the workshop. Participants were provided with information and skills about developing cooperative production and marketing, and a business plan. Dr. Assibey-Mensah (Co-PI) is preparing a manuscript "A Model: Employing Cooperative Arrangements to Address Small Farmlands Capacity to Competition" to submit to Southwest Social Science Quarterly. Dr. Mensah has started another manuscript "A Model: the Political Economy of Sustainable and Progressive Small Farm cooperative" for publication consideration in an appropriate journal. For Objective 3, the PI used project data from objective 1 during teaching, such as farm value change GIS data, agricultural production and location of small farms, and land cover change data of Kentucky. Some GIS students used such data for their GIS class research projects and developed posters. The PI has been a major advisor for three graduate students' thesis research projects (Rosny Jean, Jennifer Hubbard-Sanchez and Marshawn Thomas) during the reporting period. The project team was involved continuously in dissemination and outreach activities by engaging in discussions with many small farmers during the Small Farmers Conference and KSU's Third Thursday Thing meetings. In addition, Dr. Gyawali co-authored a book chapter with Dr. Bishwa Acharya and others "Geospatial database portal system Climate change & the quality of health" for publication, which is currently under review. Dr. Gyawali collaborated with Dr. Krishna P. Paudel, "Web-Based Survey, Calibration, And Economic Impact Assessment of Spending In Nature Based Recreation" and submitted to Environmental Economics Journal, which is currently under review.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Gyawali, B. R. Geospatial Analysis of Economic Growth in Kentucky. A paper presented at Annual International GIS Users Conference. San Diego, CA, July 14-18, 2014. Gyawali B. and K. Bates. Geospatial Education Initiatives in Kentucky-Decades-Old, Overnight Success Stories. A paper presented in American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Annual Conference, Louisville, KY, March 23-28, 2014 Gyawali B. R. Jean, A. Mensah, M. Simon, K. Bates. Analysis of Small Farmland Productivity in Kentucky. A research paper presented in Southern Rural Sociological Association Annual Meeting in Dallas, TX, February 1-4, 2014 Gyawali B. R. Jean, A. Mensah, M. Simon, K. Bates. Spatial Analysis of Small Farm Productivity in Kentucky. A poster presented in Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual meeting in Dallas, TX, February 1-4, 2014.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Gyawali B. and K. Bates. Geospatial Education Initiatives in Kentucky-Decades-Old, Overnight Success Stories. A paper presented in American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Annual Conference, Louisville, KY, March 23-28,2014.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Gyawali B., R. Jean, A. Mensah, M. Simon, and K. Bates. Analysis of Small Farmland Productivity in Kentucky. A research paper presented in Southern Rural Sociological Association Annual Meeting in Dallas, TX, February 1-4, 2014
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Gyawali B., R. Jean, A. Mensah, M. Simon, and K. Bates. Spatial Analysis of Small Farm Productivity in Kentucky. A poster presented in Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual meeting in Dallas, TX, February 1-4, 2014.

Progress 01/01/13 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience of this project is small farmers andranchers, producers and landowners, students, scientists, and other stakeholders who are directly or indirectly engaged in agricultural land management activities and research. Changes/Problems: One of the major problems the project team faced was delay in the recruitment of a graduate student. Also, lack of digitized parcel data of many of the counties selected has affected identification of landowners for survey. Many counties property/parcel maps are not digitized or not available for public use. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project provided many opportunities for PI and Co-PI’s professional development and research and grantsmanship activities. Both of them were supported to attended professional society meetings and present research papers, network with other scientists and faculty for developing collaborative grants, and recruitment of graduate students. During the project period, the PI developed one collaborative grant proposal with the faculty from Louisiana State University and University of Georgia and submitted to USDA/AFRI Foundational Program. The PI was also involved with University of Georgia’s research and extension proposal on climate change adaptation and mitigation education and submitted to USDA/AFRI. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The project team was involved in dissemination and outreach activities by engaging in discussions with many small farmers during informal forums of the annual Small Farmers Conference and KSU’s Third Thursday Thing meetings. The team has also utilized oral and poster presentations in professional conferences, and workshops, publications, and KSU’s brownbag series for sharing the results of this research. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Over the next reporting period, we plan to acquire more secondary data related to small farm production, to conduct a survey, and to prepare at least one peer-review paper to submit to a scientific journal. The graduate student will finish his thesis proposal by May 2014 and present itto the thesis advising committee. He will start analyzing data and writing chapters for his thesis. Two presentations will be developed using the results from survey and secondary data. The PI and Co-PI will be continuously involved in developing competitive grants to submit to USDA/AFRI/NIFA and NSF. At least three such proposals will be submitted. Co-PI Dr. Albert Assibey-Mensah will developa manuscript entitled“A Political Economy Model for Sustainable and Progressive Small Farm Cooperative”to besubmitted for publication in the Southern Social Science Association journal.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During the project period, January-December 2013, the project team spent most ofits time in attempting to identify graduate students, finalizing a survey questionnaire, preparing presentations for the conferences, and publications for peer-reviewed journals, professional development activities, advising students, networking, and writing new grants. We began an official process for a hiring of two new graduate students. We developed job description and advertised the position. Selected students suddenly withdrew their applications and did not join the graduate program in Spring 2013. A student applied and was thenrecruited in August 2013. This delay in the recruitment of a graduate student caused a delay in completion of other activities, which were planned for the first and second quarter of 2013. The other major activity planned was finalizing database of small farmers in Kentucky. The preliminary data suggests 43 (out of 120) counties contain majority of minority-owned small farms. Therefore, our research activity was focused on these counties. We are in the process of finalizing compilation of data related to farm value, productivity, market information, land use type, and geographic attributes and creating maps. Mr. Rosny Jean, a graduate research assistant, is compiling these data and creating a geodatabase. Over the reporting period, the PI and Co-PI made numerous papers presentations. The PIpaticipated in various recruitment and community service activities. He attendeda Latino College Fair at Eastern Kentucky University, April 27, 2013 for recruitment of high school students. He served as a judge in the poster competition of Kentucky Junior Academic of Science, Lexington. April 27, 201 and as a panel in SARE-graduate student proposals panel review and USDA/NIFA review panels during the reporting period. The PI was involved in writing multiple research and teaching grants and submitted them to NSF and USDA/NIFA to expand these research efforts. Three grants were funded over the reporting period (2 as a PI). He also engaged in revising manuscripts and three peer reviewed papers were published (two as the first author). The PI served on graduate thesis committees for two graduate students. The project team has used project data during teaching, such as farm value change GIS data, agricultural production and location of small farms, land cover change data of Kentucky. The project team was involved in dissemination and outreach activities by engaging in discussions with many small farmers during the Small Farmers Conference and KSU’s Third Thursday Thing meetings.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Gyawali, B., Hill A., Banerjee S., Chembezi D., Christian C., Bukenya J, Silitonga M. (2013). Examining Rural-Urban Population Change in Southeastern United States. Journal of Rural Social Sciences.28 (2): 90-121.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Gyawali, B. R. Banerjee S. Ban, Chembezi D., Bukenya J, Hill A., Christian C., Silitonga M. (2013). Exploring Variations in Income Growth in Southeastern United States. Journal of Geography and Regional Planning, Vol 6(4: 142-148.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: "Spatial Variation in Agricultural Farm Land Values in Kentucky" A research paper presented at Southern Rural Sociological Association Annual Meeting. February 2-5, 2013, Orlando Florida.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: "Geospatial Analysis of Income Growth in Southeastern United States" a research poster presented at 45th Annual Meeting of Southern Agricultural Economics Association, February 2-6, 2013, Orlando Florida.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: "Integrating Climate Change Studies Course in the Undergraduate Program- An effort to Develop Minority Young Scientists in STEM Field" A poster presented at the 93rd American Meteorological Society Meeting, Austin, Texas, January 7-9, 2013,
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: "Spatial Analysis of Small Farmland Productivity in Southeastern United States" A research paper presented at the 17th Biennial Research Symposium of the Association of Resource Directors (ARD), Jacksonville, FL, April 8, 2013.
• Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: "Factors affecting Farmland Values in Southeastern United State" a paper presented in the KSU Brownbag Series, April 12, 2013
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: "KSU's Education and research programs in Agriculture, Food and Environment to prepare young scientists for 21st Century". A poster presented at Symposium on Agriculture Training and Education in Developing Countries. Fairfax, VA, Sept 17-20, 2013.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: "Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS): Surveyor's Technological Utopianism" A paper presented at the Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals, Louisville, KY; October 2013.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Agriculture, Food and Environment Program and GIS Research at Kentucky State University" A paper presented at Energy and Environment Cabinet (EEC) GIS DAY, Frankfort, KY; November 2013.

Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: This research project was officially started from October 1, 2012. As stated in the Timeline for the first quarter of the project period, the project team spent most of the time in project set up, updating literature, recruitment efforts of graduate and undergraduate students, and designing of survey questionnaire, writing new grants, and preparing abstracts and presentations for the conferences. We began an official process for a hiring of two new graduate students. We developed job description and advertised the position. We received only two applications for graduate research assistantship. The selected students could not join the graduate program in Spring 2013. We hope they will join in Fall 2013. This delay in the recruitment of students has also delayed the hiring of undergraduate students in the project and completion of other activities (e.g. finalizing survey) which were planned for the first quarter of the first year. The other major activity planned was compiling database of small farms in in Kentucky. The preliminary data suggests 43 (out of 120) counties contain majority of minority-owned small farms. We are in the process of compiling farm value, productivity, market information, land use type, elevation, and other GIS information. The Co-PI (A. Assibey-Mensah) has begun drafting a survey questionnaire to be administered to the small farmers. The questionnaire will be completed and administered once we recruit students in Fall 2013. Over this reporting period, the PI and Co-PI presented following three papers in various conferences. 1. Assibey-Mensah, A. and Gyawali B. 2012. Developing Agricultural Productivity and Sustainable Land Management Models for Small Farmlands. A paper presented at a Brown Bag Series, Kentucky State University, Nov 30, 2012, 2. Gyawali, B. Assibey-Mensah A. and M. Simon. 2013. Spatial Variation in Agricultural Farm Land Values in Kentucky. A research paper presented at Southern Rural Sociological Association Annual Meeting. February 2-5, 2013, Orlando Florida. 3. Gyawali, B. 2013. Geospatial Analysis of Income Growth in Southeastern United States. A research poster presented at 45th Annual Meeting of Southern Agricultural Economics Association, February 2-6, 2013, Orlando Florida. The PI also engaged in teaching a graduate course Introduction to Geographic Information Systems in Fall 2012. He serves on graduate thesis committees for two graduate students. The project team have used project data during teaching, such as farm value change GIS data, agricultural production and location of small farms, land cover change data of Kentucky. The PI involved in writing multiple research and teaching grants, which will be submitted in February-March to USDA/AFRI and NSF. Two abstracts were developed for presentation in the 17th Biennial Research Symposium of the Association of 1890 Research Directors and Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Global Conference. The project team was involved in dissemination and outreach activities by engaging in discussions with many small farmers during the Small Farmers Conference and KSU's Third Thursday Thing meetings. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience of this project are small and socially disadvantaged farmers, ranchers, producers and landowners, students and other stakeholders who are directly or indirectly engaged in agricultural and forestry activities. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
Since the project is in the beginning of the implementation phase, we do not have specific outcomes/impacts to report at this moment. However, we report few preliminary findings related to this project. Kentucky's economy is highly dependent on agricultural sector; however, Kentucky's agriculture is not well diversified and productive as other similar states have. We found that changes in the land use pattern (agricultural or forest land to developed land) are related to changes in farmland values. However, such relationships are not consistent across the State. We found there is a strong spatial pattern of correlation between farmland values, changes in land use from traditional row crops to non-agricultural use and metropolitan development effects. Population density and transfer of farmland from agriculture to non-agricultural uses within a county have significantly affected farmland values. In addition, net farm income and investment in farm improvement were significant agricultural factors influencing farmland values in many counties of Kentucky. Using these and other results, two papers will be developed relating these results to the productivity and sustainability of farms by including more exogenous and endogenous and other geospatial variables into the spatially-explicit regression models to understand the relationships. The results will contribute to existing knowledge, actions and conditions in transferring small farms to make more viable, productive and resilient against exogenous pressure on farmlands.

Publications

• No publications reported this period