Progress report for ONC25-165
Project Information
Summary:
"Sustaining Seeds: A Cohort for Beginning Farmers in Specialty Crop Seed Production" responds to urgent needs from our network of beginning farmers, who regularly share their struggles to source culturally appropriate and locally adapted seed, exacerbated by climate change and related seed shortages. We propose to create a cohort program for 15 beginning farmers to train, trial, preserve and share culturally appropriate and locally-adapted specialty crop seeds. Cohort members are all beginning specialty crop farmers, and the majority are historically under-resourced farmers (New American, Black, Indigenous, Latino and women farmers) in Southwest Iowa and Eastern Nebraska. The project will include several educational activities for the farmer cohort: (1) a two-day intensive “Seed School for Farmers” training, (2) two seed processing and sharing workshops, and (3) one Seed Saving Field Day. Participating farmers will also design and implement seed saving trials on their operations, with technical assistance from project staff. These efforts will build farmers’ seed production and saving skills, strengthen food sovereignty and seed access, and increase regional agricultural system resiliency.
Project Objectives:
- 15 farmers (50% historically under-resourced farmers: New American, Black, Latino, women, and Indigenous farmers) will gain knowledge of specialty crop seed saving, including production and storage methods.
- 15 farmers will design and implement a seed saving trial on their operations, and save seed from three specialty crops species, selecting for suitability to local conditions.
- 15 farmers will process, package, and share saved seeds through two seed processing workshops.
- An in-person Field Day, open to the public, will offer farmer-to-farmer and community education about seed saving techniques for specialty crops, and showcase farmer research in the field.
Cooperators
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Shahab Bashar - Technical Advisor (Educator)
Farm Coordinator
Community Crops (Nonprofit / non-governmental organization)
501 S 7th Street
Lincoln, NE 68508-2920
(402) 474-9802 (office)
Amy Gerdes - Technical Advisor (Educator)
Farm Education Specialist
Community Crops (Nonprofit / non-governmental organization)
501 S 7th Street
Lincoln, NE 68508-2920
(402) 474-9802 (office)
Educational & Outreach Activities
2 Curricula, factsheets or educational tools
Participation summary:
Education/outreach description:
Sustaining Seeds: A Cohort for Beginning Farmers in Specialty Crop Seed Production completed phase one of the project which involved recruiting and onboarding 15 specialty crop farmers to participate in the cohort. CFRA staff and cooperators Gerdes and Bashar also planned a 2-day intensive seed saving training (called Seed School for Farmers) in November held at Community Crops farm. Twenty farmers, including the fifteen cohort members, attended and completed the training. CFRA staff provided curriculum binders and facilitated each educational module. The Seed School for Farmers curriculum was developed by CFRA staff and modeled after the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance seed school. Resources developed include a Seed Saving for Farmers curriculum binder, a seed saving trial worksheet, and a seed trial spreadsheet to plan seed trials and collect data.
The 2-day training covered 10 modules covering botany, pollination, genetics, breeding, seed history, seed patents, planting and crop maintenance, crop harvest, processing, and storage. The training also included hands-on, in-the-field components, with a tour of the Community Crops farm that focused on cultural crop production and seed saving techniques. In the classroom, farmers practiced wet and dry seed cleaning and storage techniques. The final component of the training involved each farmer completing a worksheet to design their seed trial. Each of the 15 farmers participating in the cohort selected three crops they would save this year and identified planting dates, minimum population requirements, planting techniques, proper isolation methods, appropriate seed sourcing and more. CFRA staff followed up with each farmer following the training for an individual meeting to confirm and finalize each of the 15 seed trials. CFRA purchased seeds and distributed them to farmers to begin their seed trials, to be completed by October 2026.
In addition to providing ongoing support to the seed trials, CFRA is also planning additional events for 2026. These will include a seed saving Field Day which will be open to the public, a seed cleaning and processing workshop, and seed trial presentations where information and data will be collected on seed production.
Learning Outcomes
20 Farmers/Ranchers gained knowledge, skills and/or awareness
Key changes:
Seed saving planning - Farmers increased knowledge and demonstrated skills related to designing demonstration plots for seed saving including sourcing open-pollinated heirloom seed, planting for minimum population, designing for proper isolation, noting harvest windows and proper harvest techniques, and how to process each seed. Farmers will demonstrate these skills during the on-farm seed trials.
Plant breeding and genetics - Farmers gained knowledge related to seed genes and traits, how to select seeds to be true to type, and selection methods to actualize on-farm seed saving goals.
Seed cleaning + storage - Farmers gained and practiced hands-on skills related to seed harvest and cleaning. Farmers demonstrated the use of fans and screens for dry seed saving processes. Farmers demonstrated the fermentation method for seeds that require wet processing. Farmers demonstrated proper seed storage and how to scientifically save different crops properly.
Project Outcomes
15 Farmers/Ranchers changed or adopted a practice
1 Grant received that built upon this project
Project outcomes:
This project is already empowering a cohort of fifteen farmers with valuable skills towards saving seeds needed on their operations. These are the first steps for them to realize economic benefits from having an increased ability to raise and sell crops valued by specific communities and are unavailable from other markets. Their communities, in turn, will socially benefit from increased access to culturally relevant foods.
Environmentally, as these fifteen farmers increase their production of the chosen varieties, they will do important work preserving vegetable crop genetic diversity. In addition, the project supports them in focusing on breeding seed that is vigorous in their local conditions. Under
a changing climate, both these seeds and these skills will become more valuable and crucial to their operations and regional food sovereignty.
Success stories:
A specialty crop farmer in David City, Nebraska was particularly interested in properly saving four cultural crops: Hopi Blue corn, Peruvian Maíz Morada grain corn, Mongolian Giant Sunflower, and Witabuchali dry pole bean. These seeds are difficult not only to source, but also to save due to the isolation needed for proper seed production. Through the Seed School for Farmers training, the cohort member was able to develop a trial to scientifically save these crops this growing season. The farmer will receive technical assistance from CFRA project staff during the growing season to support this work.
In addition, five specialty crop farmers at Community Crops Farm in Lincoln, Nebraska were able to learn the scientific methods for saving their cultural crops after spending years replanting their own seeds but not achieving the outcomes they were looking for. All five farmers learned important techniques: to select open-pollinated, heirloom seed, save from a minimum population for each crop, and use proper isolation from other crops that would cross pollinate to achieve true to type seeds.
The farmers also learned better seed sourcing methods. Farmers are increasing food access for their families and communities as well as increasing markets and profitability by saving these seeds from crops that are in high demand in their community. Some of their crop selections include: green melon, molokhia, chickpea, green eggplant, and Armenian cucumber.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.