Development of Extension Programming to Support the Advancement of Agritourism in the Northeast

Outcomes

A.  Performance target outcome data and discussion

The first phase of the project focused on the development of the core training curricula and supporting educational resources.  All resources are now available on a dedicated Extension Training for Agritourism Development website (http://agritourism.rutgers.edu/training/).

The core curriculum comprises five PowerPoint-based educational training modules.  While developed primarily to support the needs of Extension and other agricultural educators, the modules were designed to be accessible to end-clientele (e.g., farmers engaged in, or considering the development of, agritourism enterprises). The five modules are:

• Introduction to Agritourism
• Marketing Agritourism While Providing Quality Customer Service
• Financial Management: Budgeting & Pricing for Agritourism
• Managing the Safety Risks of Agritourism Farms
• Agritourism Liability

Additional educational resources include:

• A series of "Managing Risk on Your Agritourism Farm" Training Videos were produced. Each is narrated and contains field footage appropriate to the topic.

  • "Managing Liability on Agritourism Farms" (6 min. 21 sec.)
  • "Insurance for Your Agritourism Farm" (7 min., 30 sec.)
  • "Managing Risk on Your Agritourism Farm: A Farmer’s Perspective" (7 min., 55 sec.)
  • "Managing Risk on Your Agritourism Farm: Hayride Safety" (6 min., 49 sec.)
  • "Managing Risk on Your Agritourism Farm: General Farm Safety" (6 min., 39 sec.)

• An online corn maze budget calculator (and associated fact sheet/work sheet), available at: http://agritourism.rutgers.edu/corn_maze/
• A series of farm evaluation checklists for use by Extension and agricultural educators, as well as farm operators.

  • Agritourism Animal Safety
  • Agritourism Emergency Response & Liability Assessment
  • Agritourism Employee Assessment
  • Agritourism Operation Food Safety
  • Agritourism General Farm Safety Assessment
  • Agritourism Marketing Assessment
  • Agritourism Parking & Traffic Assessment
  • A sample "Farm Accident/Incident Report Form."

• Extension fact sheets.

  • Is an Agritourism Venture Right for Your Farm?
  • Marketing 101 For Your Agritourism Business
  • Developing a Mission Statement for Your Agritourism Business
  • Community Supported Agriculture: A Farmer’s Overview
  • Agritourism - Keeping Passengers Safe on Hay Rides
  • Budgeting for a Corn Maze

• Recordings of Agritourism Safety and Liability Management Webinars (A two-part, nationally advertised educational webinar series for technical service providers, educators and farmers.) Recordings available at: http://agritourism.rutgers.edu/training/webinars.html           

  • Promoting Safety on Agritourism Farms
  • Managing Agritourism Liability

The second phase of the project focused on educational outreach and training.  Twenty-four in-person training presentations, in-services, and/or workshops were offered in New Jersey, Vermont, Maine, and Delaware.  Attendance ranged from 6 to 143 participants per event.  Venues included in-service training of Extension personnel, state or regional agricultural conventions, Northeast Organic Farming Association conferences/meetings, farm workshops, professional (Extension) and practitioner conferences, etc.  In addition, the project team hosted 4 webinars marketed to national audiences.  In total, approximately 1,214 Extension educators, agricultural service providers (e.g., staff from state departments of agriculture, state farm bureaus, Farm Credit, tourism and economic development professionals), and farmers participated in online, farm-based, or classroom style training sessions.

The project website (http://agritourism.rutgers.edu) is a repository for all educational resources developed or compiled to advance the project's training deliverables.  Since its inception (September 2013), the website has had 8,458 hits from 4,730 users.  Web analytics are routinely monitored to track views and downloads of each resource or tool.  Commonly accessed resources include:

• Interactive Corn Maze Budget Tool: 595 views
• Assessing on-farm risk training videos: 297 plays
• Training modules: 395 downloads
• Agritourism Farm Assessment Checklists: 304 downloads
• Recorded Agritourism Safety & Liability Management Webinars: 31 views

In addition to the project website, a redesigned statewide (New Jersey) agritourism marketing platform was launched in April 2014 (http://visitnjfarms.org) to facilitate and support agritourism marketing efforts and social media advertising.  The site currently has 242 registered farms; 61 newly registered farms are attributable to the marketing-related programming supported by this grant.  In addition, 139 farms updated their marketing presence, most often through the creation or expansion of social media promotional efforts.

Project evaluation efforts
Standard program evaluation forms revealed strong acceptance of the training materials within the Extension/agricultural service provider community and among farmers.  For example, one of the larger training forums took place in October 2013 at Shelburne Farms in Vermont (Farm-Based Education Forum: Agritourism, Education and Economics on Your Farm).  Dr. Chase's evaluation of the event notes that the event convened 143 attendees (70 were farmers and/or homesteaders/gardeners; over 30 were service providers; and a large number of educators, non-profit employees, researchers, or tourism professionals).  Fifty-five percent of forum participants completed an emailed evaluation survey after the event: 94% said that the forum helped them identify useful resources and contacts, 88% said that the forum increased their knowledge of opportunities for farm-based education and agritourism, and 85% said that the forum gave them the knowledge they needed to implement these opportunities on their farms. Importantly, 86% reported that they are likely to assess their farm, expand communication, and/or adopt a new practice as a result of the forum. Dr. Chase found that nearly all of the subset of farmers surveyed one year after the event had indeed made one or more changes to their operation as a result of the training.

This pattern of intended behavioral or business adaptation was common throughout the regional training events.  Many farmer participants expressed an intent to modify farm practices or operation in accordance to one or more recommendations advanced during training sessions.  While systematic farm-level observation of changes implemented as a result of training/educational outreach delivered by program participants was not conducted, the majority of Extension/service provider training participants interact with farmers in their counties/services areas and are capable of developing informed assessments of "on the ground" project impacts, namely farm-level adoption  of recommended practices emerging from this project. Commonly reported examples include:

• Development of "incident response forms" (or adoption of the model form created as part of this project) to record accidents and other adverse occurrences on agritourism/direct marketing farms. One large New Jersey grain farm, for example, adopted the model form offered in outreach kits (see: http://agritourism.rutgers.edu/training/supplemental.html) which was employed only days later when a farm guest suffered a leg injury requiring medical treatment.
• Many farmers participating in direct training sessions reported that they will perform routine farm inspections and "walk-throughs" to evaluate farm safety conditions. The series of farm evaluation checklists were well received as useful, practical tools to assist farmers with these activities.
• Several farms shared examples of farm staff training/employment guides or contracts that outline job duties and performance expectations. Others reported plans to improve staff training on how to properly evaluate farm safety conditions.
• Many farms reported plans to expand or refine on-line farm marketing and promotional efforts (including adoption of social media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, You Tube, etc.). As a New Jersey-specific example, at least 61 farms registered on a newly redesigned statewide agritourism marketing website.  Another 139 registered farms updated their marketing profiles, most often enhancing their social media presence.
• The liability management recommendation that attracted the most interest among farmer participants during training sessions was the value of incorporating indemnification waivers to manage farm liability and installing proper signage (e.g., "this is a working farm" signs or signs clearly demarcating potential hazards or areas of the farm not open to visitors).

At the conclusion of the project period, a brief survey was administered to Extension educators and agricultural service providers to determine (1) whether they are using program training and materials to assist their farmer clientele, (2) the number of farmers to whom educational training or materials were provided, and (3) the number of farms that, as a result of their guidance, made changes to their marketing practices, farm safety practices, approaches to liability and risk management, employee training, and/or other aspects of their agritourism operations.  

The survey validates that our project performance targets were attained.  As of August 31, 2015, at minimum, 24 Extension educators or other agricultural service providers confirmed that they have used our program materials to assist their clientele.  They collectively estimate that they distributed program educational content to 1,681 farmers in the Northeast.  They affirm a large number of farm-level changes or adaptations to accord with recommended practices and strategies for improving marketing, farm safety, and liability management.  In some cases, training participants provided informed estimates of the number of clientele (frequently farmers within their county) that made such changes.   Most commonly, educators reported that farms made changes to marketing practices (n=313 farms).  Educators also reported farms making changes related to farm safety practices (n=207 farms), liability and risk management approaches to (n=190 farms), and employee training procedures (n=126 farms).  One Extension educator in New Jersey emphasized food safety best practices in her training, leading to an estimated 140 farms taking action to enhance this aspect of their enterprises.  Farms often made changes in more than one aspect of their agritourism enterprise.

B.  Additional outcomes discussion

Several favorable outcomes resulted from the project, beyond attainment of training performance targets.  For example, the project fostered substantial professional dialogue and networking and garnered media attention on the topic of agritourism.  The project team promoted the availability of curricular resources through national venues, including presentations at professional meetings of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents, National Extension Tourism, National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals, and American Society for Horticultural Science.  These professional engagements, coupled with national exposure achieved through project webinars, also resulted in Extension professionals from outside of the Northeast region requesting the use of curricular materials (e.g., Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin).  At least two international requests for information also resulted (i.e., Canada,  Antigua). 

An offshoot of the project in New Jersey has been a growing number of farmers requesting individual farm assessments from Extension personnel (e.g., farm safety evaluation, review of marketing practices, etc.).  This resulted in a team of Rutgers Cooperative Extension faculty developing a new proposal to support farm SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) assessments to new and established agritourism farms.

The project website has earned several regional or national awards, including the National Association of County Agricultural Agents Communications Award (Northeast winner) and American Society for Horticulture Sciences Extension Division National Award for Outstanding Website.  In addition, the educational/training modules have been recognized by the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (Northeast winner and National runner-up in the educational package category) and National Association of County Agricultural Agents (Communications Award,  Learning Module Category).  Lastly, one educational resource ("Budgeting for a corn maze" - Rutgers Cooperative Extension publication E343) was a National Finalist for the National Association of County Agricultural Agents Communications Award.