Preparing Small Scale Limited Resource Vegetable Farmers for Organic Farming in North Florida

Organic farming has many definitions but it can best be characterized in terms of the cultural practices, and pest and disease control measures which are allowed, restricted, or prohibited. It is a production system which avoids or excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, and growth regulators. It relies upon crop rotations, use of crop residues, animal and green manures, mechanical cultivation, and biologically based pest control to maintain soil productivity, supply nutrients, and control insect pests, diseases, and weeds. Despite the advancement of modern agriculture, pest (mainly insects, nematodes and weeds) control and soil fertility management remain to be major challenges in organic agriculture. Organic food production has not kept pace with consumer demand which has risen quickly over the past decade (Greene et al., 2009). The growing consumer demand highlights urgent need to overcome constraints in organic food production. Stringent organic production standards developed by the National Organic Program (NOP) and National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), and a complex certification process required by different states are among the constraints facing small scale organic farmers (Treadwell, 2007). The planning project brought together a multidisciplinary team of agronomic and horticultural crop production specialists, entomologists, soil scientists, weed scientists and agricultural economists from FAMU, UF and USDA-ARS, and stakeholders including the Florida Organic Growers and Consumers, Inc. and others to identify opportunities and developed appropriate partnerships with a specific focus on production research that will address: i) soil fertility and health: the use of different organic fertilizers (animal manure, plant manures, compost, cover crops/green manures, natural soil amendments/lime and mixed organic fertilizers), ii) pest management: biological control of pests (insects, nematodes and weeds), iii) crop and land management (crop rotation, tillage, mulching, plant spacing, time of planting) and iv) water management in vegetable production. The project activities focused on recruitment of new organic vegetable farmers and seminars on organic farming and organic certification requirements in Florida. Before this planning grant,FAMU did not conduct any research on organic agriculture. Through this planning grant, FAMU has partnered with UF/IFAS and USDA-ARS in promoting organic agriculture in North Florida. A site dedicated to organic agricultural research (10 acres)was secured at the FAMU Research and Extension Farm and a second site at FAMU main campus dedicated to Integrated Pest Management (IPM. Development and offer of new courses in organic agriculture at FAMU is an overarching goal of the project. Among key outputs realized from the planning grant are: i) increased partnership and collaboration among research scientists in organic agriculture at FAMU, UF/IFAS and USDA/ARS, ii) increased interaction and sharing of knowledge between research scientists and stakeholders, iii) collection of pertinent information regarding organic farming iii) development and offer of a course with focus on IPM and organic agriculture at FAMU, iv) development and submission of two research proposals to USDA-NIFA (both proposals were funded)on IPM/organic agriculture and iv) increased awareness of organic agriculture to existing and new organic farmers through workshops and seminars.