Performing Department
Extension Service
Non Technical Summary
SummaryAs the local foods movement has gained momentum nationally, it has underscored the deficits of small rural and urban farms in West Virginia and the need for support, education, and infrastructure to make them successful. Nearly 80% of West Virginia farms generate less than $10,000 per year in farm revenues (West Virginia Department of Agriculture, 2015) though these revenues do skew higher in regions that have historically relied on farming, as opposed to those that have had coal as their economic base. With the largest number of USDA classified "small" farms, 95% of which are family owned, there is a blatant human cost to knowledge gaps throughout the state; where the farm fails, so too does a family. However, these costs are not just to the farming families but to the state as a whole as it misses an opportunity to create a more robust economy by capitalizing on the cultivation of the locavore mentality. At the heart of the "buy local" ideology is the correlation to local foods being fresher. In 2008, a collaborative endeavor between the 21st Century Appalachia and West Virginia University Extension Small Farm Center set out to identify the perceptions and use of local foods in West Virginia (The Buy Local Trend in WV, 2010). Unfortunately, the study revealed a major roadblock in the supply chain: a lack of centralized cold storage operations and producer's lack of knowledge of postharvest handling practices. This means that without appropriate cooling and post harvesting techniques the market reach of farm products is severely circumscribed as, in order to deliver fresh foods, the markets must be extremely close to the point of harvest. This issue is exacerbated by the reality of regional agriculture production and the Appalachian Mountains. Rural roads over the Appalachian Mountains are not linear, the roads traveled wind and bend back, climb and fall so that distance is told in time traveled rather than distance. Urban and isolated rural populations, ever in need of fresh foods to combat food deserts, exist well away from the regions producing food, becoming lost markets. Currently, in order to take advantage of these market opportunities West Virginia's small farmers would need to purchase a chiller or freezer system for the transport of perishable products, a cost prohibitive endeavor even for the larger farming operations in the state.However, through partnerships and Extension projects, education and shared resources are being cultivated to support the increased economic development and market expansion of West Virginia's small, veteran and limited resource farmers. Partnerships between West Virginia State University Extension Service (WVUSES) the West Virginia National Guard (WVNG) and the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) known as Patriot Guardens have begun addressing this issue by developing Ag Incubator training centers housed out of underutilized armories around the state. These facilities will act as centralized locations for education and a sharing of resources for small farmers such as stationary and mobile cold storage units. This grant will increase the capacity for educational outreach through the armories and introduce participants to these resources to assist them in their farming endeavors.In order to make this movement and economic shift successful, new farmers require both education and infrastructure, particularly farmers in West Virginia's Persistent Poverty StrikeForce Counties of Wayne, Logan, Mason and Cabell. This project will expand the 1890s Capacity Building Grant and the 1890 Cold Storage Cluster Initiative, ongoing projects through WVSU Extension that target farmer education on cold-storage and post-harvest handling. The WVNG, through the Patriot Guardens Initiative, is ready to make more armories available to expand the accessibility of WVSUES's training and tools beyond the three initial sites of Kanawha, McDowell, and Cabell.The West Virginia State University Extension Service (WVSUES) Cold Storage Initiative will expand on this recent work and develop inclusive post-harvest handling education, providing infrastructure such as mobile and stand-alone cold storage units, and teaching small farmers how to create their own, on farm, cold storage units. Through this expansion, WVSUES will aid farmers in practical implementation of post-harvest handling practices and offer technical assistance on reaching additional markets through niche product production. The Extension Service will focus efforts on small, veteran and limited resource farmers in three Conservation Districts as determined by the West Virginia Conservation Agency: Western (Mason, Putnam and Jackson counties), Guyan (Boone, Cabell, Lincoln, Logan, Mingo and Wayne counties) and Greenbrier Valley (Monroe, Pocahontas and Greenbrier). These efforts will enhance the ability of West Virginia's small farmers to reach more diverse markets and provide niche products through decreased perishability, making agriculture a more sustainable and viable economic force in the region..
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
This project will develop additional small clusters of participants in a minimum of three different Conservation Districts: Western (Mason, Putnam and Jackson counties), Guyan (Boone, Cabell, Lincoln, Logan, Mingo and Wayne counties) and Greenbrier Valley (Monroe, Pocahontas and Greenbrier). Each clusters will be comprised of three or more farms with a target of 28 participants. Participation in the program will decrease perishability thus increasing profit by improving product quality and quantity and broadening market possibilities. Most small farms within the state do not utilize appropriate post-harvest handling practices such as pre-cooling or cold storage systems and even fewer are GHP/GAP trained. Trainings topics will include the removal of field heat, benefits of cold storage, proper storage temperatures and produce transport procedures, flash freezing, and the construction of cold storage units for the participants' farms. Cold storage practices retards the microbe growth, thus preserving the food longer for safe consumption (Kader, 2011). The cold storage mobile units provided by the ongoing project will be utilized by the small farm clusters to hold their products as well as transport it to local markets. The program objectives are as follows: (1) to deliver precooling and cold storage workshops and trainings to small farmers in the region; (2) to increase access to cold storage for small farmers through participation in the cold storage program; and (3) to provide technical assistance to increase farmers' capacity to reach new and niche markets. This project has the potential to increase the amount of agricultural products being sold in the local foods marketplace, thereby increasing the agricultural receipts for West Virginia growers.
Project Methods
Methods/Implementation:The WVSU Cold Chain Initiative will enhance the capacity of WVSUES to provide cold storage and post-harvest education and resources to small, veteran and limited resource farmers interested in expanding their markets. Training Modules will target the needs of these producers, emphasizing initial field heat removal, proper storage and transportation of products, and construction methods for both on farm and mobile cold storage units. Through the support of the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) additional guidance will be provided to developing a farm safety plan to assure proper product handling and traceability. The WVNG will support program efforts through use of Armory locations. This plan will help small farmers in the region increase the quality of the product they bring to market, transition into additional markets, and expand their market opportunities. The effectiveness of the program will be evaluated and adjusted throughout the term of the grant as needed to ensure that desired impacts are achieved. With emphasis on increasing agricultural production in the state, it is also important that that the basic needs of the farmers are being met in order to attain this goal.Evaluation/Data AnalysisThis grant will allow WVSUES to increase capacity through the development of cold storage training modules for expanded education to small farmers on proper handling procedures and techniques. By the culmination of this two year program our outreach approach and program delivery will become more refined to best meet the needs of our small and rural farmers; it will help illustrate potential markets throughout the state and beyond its borders.An Implementation Evaluation will determine the level to which the program is following the timeline and activities indicated within the proposal and if these benchmarks are being achieved. This will be assessed by the project team. Once notification of funding is received and a funding stream established, the Implementation Evaluation will begin. This process will span the first full year of the project and help ensure that the project meets project goals.The Summative Evaluation will determine that the goals and objectives of the project have been met. The program partners for this project will be presented with this information as well as that collected during the Implementation Evaluation Phase on an annual basis and asked to provide input. Program participants will complete content and attitude surveys to assess programmatic impact. These evaluation instruments will be used to make any necessary adjustments to each program component to ensure that the program is providing positive impact. Program participants will also be administered pre and post surveys at each training to illustrate a change in knowledge. Measurable outcomes include increased knowledge on precooling techniques, increased knowledge of post-harvest handling and storage, increased capacity of the farmer to reach and enter new markets, as well as an increase in the farmer's capacity to target niche market development through utilization of cold storage units. These records create a baseline for evaluating increased production over the course of program participation.Data collected through an initial survey will establish participants' base level of knowledge about post-harvest management practices as well as produce grown and miles traveled to market in previous seasons. Data collected will be analyzed with Survey Gizmo. All data will be graphed for visual analysis along with percentile base analysis. Upon completion of the modules another brief survey will be given to assess knowledge gained. This data will be analyzed in the same way as the preliminary analysis survey; results of both surveys will be compared. A third more in-depth survey will assess if the technology of post-harvest management was adaptive, whether new crops were grown because of the technology, and if the technology has helped participants increase their travel radius, thus increase their customer base. The third survey will be analyzed in the same way as the previous two to keep a standardized result base for comparison.Temperature and relative humidity loggers will be placed at all participating farm locations, recording temperature and relative humidity at ten-minute intervals through the course of the selling season. Data collected from the recorders will be compiled for each participating farm giving the average temperature and humidity of the produce storage unit and the average temperature and humidity of the mobile storage unit. Significant fluctuation will be noted and data will be compared to the end of season farm analysis survey.The main goal of the proposed WVSU Cold Chain Initiative is to enhance the capacity of the Extension Service to provide cold storage and post-harvest education and resources to small farmers interested in expanding their markets. In order to assess the degree to which this program has achieved these goals, a series of follow-up surveys will be distributed to program participants for up to two years after the program has culminated.