Progress report for CNE25-009
Project Information
Providence Farm Collective is a grassroots, not-for-profit organization with a mission of cultivating farmer-led and community-rooted agriculture and food systems to actualize the rights of people. PFC was created to meet the growing demand for farmland among communities of Buffalo. With nearly 90% of households enduring food insecurity, the community need in our region runs deep. This project directly addresses these community needs for farmland, equipment, training and fresh food.
The Expanding EA project has three primary objectives: decreasing farmer needs for equipment and training to help build their farming skills and independence; providing educational support to farmers to increase their production and market access; and building staff capacity to train and support farmers.
Funding for this project will build PFC's capacity to train and support our 200+ farmers, including walking with farmers on their journey to independent farm operation. The project allows PFC to deliver critical training and support services to our farmers. Through this project, PFC will develop standard procedures for safe training of staff and farmers on all appropriate equipment; conduct at least 10 workshops and 20 individual trainings annually on essential farm skills and equipment; create a whole farm soil health management plan, field preparation and amendment plan, and irrigation management plan; and train five staff members on farm equipment and operations. This project will expand PFC's ability to help farmers and engage partners as demand for our services grows.
Objective #1: Increase farmer access to equipment and equipment training to help build their farming skills and independence.
Objective #2: Provide educational support and training to farmers to increase their production and market access.
Objective #3: Build staff capacity to train and support farmers.
Cooperators
Research
Objective #1: Increase farmer access to equipment and equipment training to help build their farming skills and independence.
With funds for the Expanding Equitable Access program, PFC will hire an Equipment and Facilities Manager and Equipment and Facilities Mentor to expand farmer access to equipment and to train farmers in the use of equipment necessary to independent farm operation. To ensure that PFC best meets the needs of our diverse farmer communities, the Manager is representative of these communities.
PFC actively mentors, trains and cultivates farm community members to take leadership positions within the organization. The staff leading this project have already been identified and recruited on the farm by PFC leadership, and include Murjan Issa as Equipment and Facilities Manager and Jeff Herrmann as Equipment and Facilities Mentor.
Hard skills required of an equipment and facilities manager take a long time to learn and are often specific to the equipment available at a farm. Providing on-the-job training over an extended period of time is the best option for PFC to hire and build capacity from within the communities we serve. The Mentor will work directly with the Manager to build skills, create and enact standard operating procedures, and develop a network of support.
During the first six months of the project, the Equipment and Facilities Mentor will create procedures for safe training of staff and farmers on all appropriate equipment. Once procedures are created, the Mentor will train and oversee the Manager on teaching safe operation of equipment to farmers and staff. Farmers will receive small group training and 1:1 technical assistance on small motorized and walk behind equipment. Farm staff will receive training on safe operation of small motorized equipment, irrigation pumps, walk behind equipment, skidsteer, 4-wheel tractor, tractor implements, utility vehicles, truck and delivery vehicle, and trailers.
This project is designed to meet immediate needs of PFC farmers. Three farmers own walk-behind tractors and two more are in the process of purchasing them, and often come to PFC staff with questions on their equipment. In order to help farmers build maintenance skills, the Manager and Mentor will provide training on basic maintenance and winterization using farmers' personal equipment. These skills are critical to farmers' success as they grow their businesses towards independent farm ownership.
The Mentor and Manager team will develop a network of support for equipment and facilities for times when professional services are required. These contacts will become part of the support network that PFC is building to assist farmers with the transition to independent farm operation. To further facilitate farmer independence, the Mentor will train farmers in communication and organizational skills for hiring out specialized work such as tractor repair.
At the close of the project, the Manager will have worked with the Mentor to develop the necessary skills to work on their own (without the Mentor), and farmers and staff will have developed skills for safe use of equipment essential to independent farm operation.
Objective #2: Provide educational support and training to farmers to increase their production and market access.
This project will include hiring a Farm Manager for improvement of farm operations and systems, leading to improved soils, yields, and profitability for PFC farmers. Project funding will allow the Farm Manager and Equipment Team to conduct at least 10 workshops as well as 20 individual trainings annually for farmers on topics including equipment maintenance; safe operation of equipment in tool library; communications for hiring out repair; workshops on tractors and implements; training on reduced tillage field preparation; organic amendment application; biodegradable mulch application for improved soil health and weed control; and training on mechanical cultivation.
The Farm Manager will run a motorized tool library for farmers, including push lawn mowers, weed wackers, Mantis cultivators, Grillo walk behind tractor and implements, Tilmor walk behind cultivator. These tools are in heavy demand by farmers, who otherwise only have hand tools to manage their plots. Farmers who complete operation and safety training on these items are able to check out the tools for use on their farm. Motorized tools reduce the number of work hours farmers need to spend maintaining their plots and also build essential skills for farmers who are seeking to launch their farm outside of PFC.
Objective #3: Build staff capacity to train and support farmers.
The Farm Manager will focus on building capacity by improving farm operations to directly increase farmer productivity and success. The Manager will be responsible for creation of a whole farm soil health plan, field preparation and amendment plan and tracking document, and irrigation management plan for PFC. The Manager will train farmers in skills and techniques essential to successful independent farm operation. Improving farm operations and soil health management results in increased yield, healthier crops, reduction in weeds, and a decrease in labor requirements for farmers.
The Access project will allow PFC to train at least 5 staff on safe operation of equipment; train 3 staff members to better serve farmers on equipment support; and complete extensive training of one Equipment and Facilities Manager to increase capacity to perform job duties, including training of farmers and staff.
Timeline:
Summer 2025: Hire and onboard Equipment and Facilities Mentor and Manager, Farm Manager. Farmer training launches - 10 workshops and 20 trainings in 2025. Farm Manager maintains tool library.
Fall 2025: Equipment and Facilities team creates procedures for equipment training. Farm Manager creates plans for soil health management, field preparation, irrigation management.
Winter 2025: Evaluation of trainings and systems to make revisions for 2026. Farmer interviews assess skills farmers have learned this season.
Spring 2026: Equipment and Facilities team trains farmers and staff on equipment; Farm Manager trains farmers on systems. Five staff trained and evaluated.
Summer/Fall 2026: Farmer training continues - 10 workshops and 20 trainings in 2026. Farm Manager maintains tool library.
Winter 2026: Evaluation of trainings and systems to make revisions for 2027. Farmer interviews assess skills farmers have learned this season.
Spring 2027: Farmer training continues. Equipment and Facilities mentorship complete. PFC provides final report to NESARE.
Education & outreach activities and participation summary
5+ staff trainings - small group trainings on safe equipment use (small motorized equipment, irrigation pumps, walk-behind equipment, 4 wheel tractor, tractor implements, utility vehicles, truck and delivery vehicles)
Participation summary:
The Expanding Equitable Access Project provided training opportunities to farmers and staff at PFC. Training was available to all of PFC's 200+ farmers. Trainings were broken into two main categories: equipment and farm management. PFC's farming populations are diverse and multilingual, so education was provided in farmer's preferred languages. Staff capacity building trainings prepared multi-lingual staff, representative of PFC's farming communities, to better provide education to PFC's farmers.
The following educational activities have been completed in the first year of the grant:
- Comprehensive training of PFC's new Equipment and Facilities Manager, Murjan Issa. Murjan is part of the Somali Bantu community and speaks four languages. Murjan came to PFC with a varied experience in trades work but needed support in developing his equipment maintenance skills for the job. Jeff Herrmann, with many years experience in small and large equipment maintenance, was hired as the Equipment and Facilities Mentor to help develop new equipment and facilities maintenance systems and provide on-the-job training for Murjan. Through this training Murjan has developed a wide array of skills and an external network of support to successfully complete his responsibilities in this role. Additionally, Murjan has taken on training of staff and farmers in safe equipment operations, equipment maintenance, and high tunnel/greenhouse construction.
- 7 staff members received training in safe operations of a variety of equipment. 4 of these staff are multilingual and have been trained to teach farmers safe operations of motorized tools available in PFC's tool library.
- 10 workshops were taught with a total of 43 attendances (some attendees came to multiple workshops): Walk Behind Equipment #1; Walk Behind Equipment #2; 4-Wheel Tractors #1; 4-Wheel Tractors #2; Advanced Field Prep; Advanced Cover Cropping; Greenhouse Construction #1; Greenhouse Construction #2; Advanced Farm Planning & Irrigation System Design; Basic Maintenance & Winterization of Walk Behind Equipment
- 7 Lesson plans or handouts were created, 2 of which were handouts in Swahili.
- 8 Equipment SOPs were created, all of these are used as educational tools for training of staff and farmers
- An estimated 25+ technical assistance sessions were held 1:1 with farmers (topics included personal equipment set up, equipment use, equipment maintenance, field preparation, irrigation system management, equipment selection and purchasing).
Learning Outcomes
While no formal farmer surveys were given to assess changes in knowledge, attitudes, skills and/or awareness from trainings provided in this grant, informal feedback was provided post-workshops and during annual farmer interviews.
The majority of farmer feedback from the education provided in this grant was related to equipment use, selection, and maintenance. Farmers were excited to learn how to use equipment available to them in PFC's tool library to decrease labor and increase production on their farms. Those who recently purchased equipment expressed increased knowledge and skills from training directly on their new equipment - including set-up, operations, troubleshooting, basic maintenance, and winterization. While farmers expressed increased awareness and knowledge on 4-wheel tractors, implements, and field preparation there was also disappointment that PFC is not able to train on 4-wheel tractors at this time due to lack of insurance coverage for this.
Project Outcomes
In 2026, PFC reported farmer sales increased by 26% to over $186,000. Additionally, the majority of farmers reported increased yields in 2026. While it is not possible for us to determine exact cause of these increases, improved farmer education and overall farm systems management through this project certainly supported increased yields and sales. Farmers consistently report that PFC's programs increase their connection to community and quality of life.
Specifically through this project:
- 5 farmers began operating and maintaining their own equipment
- 2 farmers received support in selecting and purchasing new equipment
- Several farmers began utilizing new equipment thorough PFC's tool library
One farmer, who graduated PFC's Incubator Farm Program and launched onto leased land in 2025, received a lot of support through this grant and other supporting grants. With PFC's site visits, workshops, and technical assistance sessions he was able to: set up and learn the operations of several pieces of new equipment, receive training on equipment maintenance and winterization using his own equipment; learn the operations of a new irrigation system; receive support and training on irrigation system maintenance/repairs. Acquiring the advanced skills necessary to begin independent operations can be a serious barrier to launching a farm. He has greatly benefited from educational support and technical assistance provided through this project and is quickly growing and improving his farm operation.
One of the biggest successes of this project was the hiring of an Equipment and Facilities Manager and Mentor team. As discussed earlier in this report, the Equipment and Facilities Manager is from one of PFC's farming communities - the Somali Bantu. With this, he brings the ability to meet farmers where they are at, providing more relevant education directly in most farmers' preferred spoken language. PFC strives to hire from within the communities farming at PFC to ensure that the organization is farmer-led and community-rooted. Still, it can be difficult to find the skill sets needed for a position within PFC's farming communities. For this reason, employees working in pairs has been a successful way to balance and build skills sets. In this grant, an Equipment and Facilities Mentor was brought in to provide on-the-job training to the Manager, which proved to be an excellent collaboration resulting in extensive and thorough training for the Manager. The Equipment and Facilities Mentor had to leave the position earlier than planned, but still had imparted enough training for the Manager to successfully fulfill the responsibilities of his role. The Mentor has stayed close to PFC and still provides assistance to the Manager and the organization as needed.
From past experience and farmer feedback, we know that PFC farmers prefer hands-on education in small groups or 1:1 directly provided in their preferred language. With increased staff trainings, PFC is constantly striving to provide improved education to farmers based on their feedback. Through this grant we have been able to increase staff knowledge to become better educators for farmers, including capacity building for 4 multilingual staff. Additionally, we have trialed making workshops more relevant for farmers through this project. During this project trainings have proven most effective and valuable when it directly connects to the farmer's operation. For example, when farmers learned operations and maintenance on their own equipment they were more engaged and the skills were used immediately. Also, farmers were more engaged when farm planning and irrigation system design workshop was a work session for a farmer's plot and current needs, rather than a theoretical overview.