Final report for WRGR22-007
Project Information
In a response to the regulatory phase-out of methyl bromide, a major soil fumigant used in regional strawberry production, WSARE project GW13-011 investigated the use of compost for suppression of common soilborne diseases. Researchers found that compost amendments were associated with reductions in disease pressure for two common soilborne diseases, both of which affect strawberries as well as many of the other crops grown in our region. Our project couples these important advancements in sustainable agriculture research with an ethical commitment to equity in agriculture, principally by extending compost-induced suppression of soilborne disease to small-scale Latinx farmers in California’s Central Coast.
It is well-known that Latinx farmers in the U.S. face a variety of cultural, financial, and language barriers – as well as explicit instances of discrimination – in their efforts to establish and maintain successful farming operations. Despite these barriers, Latinx farmers have become leaders in the sustainable agriculture movement nationwide. These trends are particularly palpable in California’s Central Coast. Amidst large-scale industrial farming operations and sky-high land prices, Latinx farmers are struggling to establish small-scale, diversified fruit and vegetable farms. One major factor contributing to these farmers’ struggles regionally is the prevalence of soilborne disease, as well as the limited assistance available to help these farmers mitigate the impact of soilborne disease on their crop yield. In addition to utilizing learnings from GW13-011, we draw on pedagogical findings from WSARE projects OW13-062 and ONE20-376 which indicate the importance of one-on-one assistance for small-scale Latinx farmers to help them overcome multiple barriers to implementation. Our project extends compost-induced disease suppression to these farmers via individualized education and implementation assistance, as well as through workshops at regional educational hubs.
- Provide education on compost-induced disease suppressive soils to a total of 60+ small-scale Latinx farmers. We will provide farmers with educational resources on compost-induced disease suppression via workshops designed for broad regional accessibility and via one-on-one consultations, in which we provide resources that are relevant to the farmer’s specific cropping system.
- Provide implementation assistance to a cohort of 15-20 small-scale Latinx farmers annually during the project period. De Corato (2020) notes that is recommended to apply 20-30 tons/hectare (approximately 8-12 tons per acre) to achieve disease suppressive functions without potentially producing an environmental hazard; accordingly, we will support farmers with accessing, applying, and paying for compost at a rate of up to 10 tons/acre.
- Connect small-scale Latinx farmers with resources for accessing compost beyond the project period. Incentives programs like the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Healthy Soils Program offer financial support for farmers implementing sustainable agriculture practices; additionally, grants from non-governmental organization such as the Zero FoodPrint (ZFP) Restore California program offer compost funding for farmers. Given that small-scale Latinx farmers are rarely able to access information about these programs, we will provide participating farmers with information about these and similar opportunities.
- Enhance productivity of soil through application of 300+ tons of compost on a total of 30+ acres of farmland annually. This will involve helping the cohort of 15-20 farmer participants to access and apply compost to their fields at a rate of up to 10 tons/acre for a maximum of 2 acres/farmer.
- Provide additional data on barriers to implementation of compost-induced disease suppression among small-scale Latinx farmers. Through use of surveys throughout educational activities and individual memos of each participating producer’s experience with the practice, we will compile and synthesize information on barriers to implementation.
It is well-known that Latinx farmers in the U.S. face a variety of cultural, financial, and language barriers – as well as explicit instances of discrimination – in their efforts to establish and maintain successful farming operations. Despite these barriers, Latinx farmers have become leaders in the sustainable agriculture movement nationwide (Minkoff Zern, 2019). These trends are particularly palpable in California’s Central Coast. Amidst large-scale industrial farming operations and sky-high land prices, Latinx farmers are struggling to establish small-scale, diversified fruit and vegetable farms. One major factor contributing to these farmers’ struggles regionally is the prevalence of soilborne disease, as well as the limited assistance available to help these farmers mitigate the impact of soilborne disease on their crop yield. Our project extends recent research on management of soilborne disease to small-scale (<20 acres) Spanish-speaking Latinx farmers (those who self-identify as Latino, Latina, or Latinx), ultimately supporting their success as sustainable farmers.
Our project is primarily informed by three WSARE projects: GW13-011, OW13-062, and ONE20-376. For GW13-011, researchers found that compost amendments were associated with reductions in disease pressure for two common soilborne diseases, both of which affect many of the crops grown in our region. Findings from GW13-011 are therefore uniquely relevant to our region and will assist in reducing crop disease pressure faced by small-scale Latinx farmers. Additionally, while OW13-062 and ONE20-376 did not constitute traditional research projects, both projects assisted small-scale Latinx farmers with various aspects of soil management. Reports on each project’s pedagogical approach discuss the effectiveness of one-on-one technical assistance for supporting small-scale Latinx farmers; this finding informs our methodology.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
We aimed to provide implementation assistance to a cohort of 15-20 small-scale Latinx farmers annually during the project period, supporting farmers to access, apply, and pay for compost at a rate of up to 10 tons/acre for a maximum of 2 acres/farmer (Obj. 2). This aim had the added benefit of enhancing soil productivity through application of 300+ tons of compost on a total of 30+ acres of farmland annually (Obj. 4). We additionally sought to connect farmers with resources for accessing compost beyond the project period (Obj. 3).
In summer 2022, we conducted outreach to small-scale (<20 acres) Latinx farmers in our region. To do so, we created a list of farmers in our networks and developed a targeted outreach strategy to prioritize collaboration with farmers based on need and to support those farmers who are not yet utilizing compost as a regular practice. We conducted one-on-one consultations with a cohort of 20 of these farmers to discuss challenges they are experiencing related to soilborne disease and the potential benefits of compost use for disease suppression, as well as for soil health more broadly.
In fall, 2022, based on demonstrated interest from each farmer, we provided implementation assistance so that these 20 farmers could access and apply compost to their fields at a recommended rate of 10 tons/acre for a maximum of 2 acres/farmer. Given that these farmers typically do not have the capacity to spread their own compost, we reached out to compost vendors in our area who also offer spreading services; the only vendor we found was Central Coast Compost (CCC) (now Central Coast Worm Farm). We communicated with CCC staff to develop a voucher system so that we could provide farmers with compost vouchers pre-approved by the vendor, and the vendor would bill us directly.
In spring 2023, we conducted follow-up one-on-one meetings with farmers during which we addressed their questions and shared literature related to compost-induced disease suppression, asked whether farmers would like to participate in another round of implementation assistance, and discussed opportunities to obtain small grants in order to apply compost to more acreage and/or in future years. Several of the farmers in our cohort were interested in longer-term funding options for compost and other soil health practices, liked cover cropping. Accordingly, we shared information with them about the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) offered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and referred farmers to NRCS staff so that they could apply to that program. However, given that the EQIP application and enrollment process takes many months, we again provided implementation assistance to some of the same farmers in fall, 2023, as well as to many new farmers.
In summer 2023, we received unanticipated compost funding associated with California Senate Bill (SB) 1383, which supports organic waste diversion from landfills and has produced a large amount of compost statewide. We used those additional funds to support farmers with cost-share for compost application so that each of the farmers in our program could apply more tons of compost to their farms, is desired. Ultimately, we were able to leverage to extend the reach of this project to assist more producers than originally expected by splitting each producer’s compost costs between WSARE funds and SB 1383 funds. From summer 2023 through spring 2024, we provided compost implementation assistance to several continuing farmers in addition to 28 new small-scale Latinx farmers. Due to a change in leadership at the compost company and associated confusion regarding our voucher system, we transitioned to providing farmers with payment on a reimbursement basis. This was not ideal, as many farmers in this demographic lack the up-front capital needed to apply compost, but the incentives still encouraged many farmers who otherwise would not have been able to apply compost.
In spring 2024, we again conducted follow-up one-on-one meetings with all farmers to address their questions related to compost-induced disease suppression and continued connecting farmers with longer-term funding opportunities for compost, including NRCS EQIP as well as the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA’s) Healthy Soils Program.
Throughout this work, 48 farmers have received individualized education about compost benefits and soil disease ecology and have each implemented compost on their farms. Using only the WSARE funds (not including the SB 1383 matching funds), we applied a total of approximately 908 tons of compost to a total of 90.8 acres, at a rate of 10 tons/acre.
Through use of surveys throughout educational activities and individual memos of each participating producer’s
experience with the practice, we aimed to compile and synthesize information on barriers to implementation (Obj. 5).
During compost implementation in fall of 2022, we met and communicated regularly with farmers to understand challenges they experienced with regard to compost implementation and to support however possible. In this process, we created memos about each individual farmers’ experiences to track barriers to implementation. We repeated this process in spring of 2023, in fall of 2023, and again in spring 2024, ultimately compiling our findings into a comprehensive memo entitled “Barriers to compost implementation: Lessons from small-scale Latine farmers in California’s Central Coast.”
Our memo highlights four major themes: (1) financial incentives for compost are necessary, especially those with advance payment options; (2) need for more widespread compost application equipment; (3) importance of one-on-one, relationship-based education; (4) limitations of field-level education amidst insecure land tenure. The memo can be found as an attachment to this final report.
Information collected and synthesized in our final memo is meant to offer qualitative insight into the potential barriers to implementation of compost-induced disease suppression among small-scale Latine farmers in our region. We plan to share this memo with partner organizations that work with small-scale Latine farmers and other farmers of color throughout California, with the hope that insights will support learning among farmer technical assistance providers about how to better support farmers and improve soil health.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
We conducted an estimated 2 consultations per farmer for a total of 20 farmers in the first year of compost implementation, and an estimated 2 consultations per farmer for a total of 35 farmers in the second year of compost implementation (7 of those farmers were returning, for a total of 48 farmers served and 110 consultations conducted). Each of those farmers received funding for compost application.
In January 2024, we conducted a workshop at the annual EcoFarm conference in Pacific Grove, CA. The conference includes Spanish-language workshops and attracts many small-scale Latine farmers in our region, as well as many who seek to provide technical and financial assistance to these farmers. During our workshop, we presented on the mechanisms of compost-induced disease suppression, discussed farmers’ ongoing experiences with the practice and potential barriers to implementation, and shared resources for small-scale Latinx farmers to access and apply compost. We verbally administered a modified WSARE outreach survey to attendees and recorded information by hand to gain participant feedback.
In February 2024, we conducted a workshop at ALBA in Salinas, CA. ALBA hosts a year-long educational course for 25-40 Latinx aspiring farmers and leases land to another 30-40 beginning farmers annually. Our workshop targeted those 55-80 farmers and ALBA staff and had an attendance of approximately 25 farmers and staff. This workshop covered similar content to the workshop at EcoFarm and also included discussion of cover cropping for soil health, which is a common practice among ALBA farmers. Again, we verbally administered the WSARE outreach survey to gain participant feedback. Additionally, in June 2024, we met with ALBA staff to train staff on soil test interpretation and to discuss compost application and funding options for ALBA farmers.
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
We supported 48 farmers through one-on-one consultations to learn about the multiple uses of compost and, in particular, its ability to suppress soilborne disease. Those same 48 farmers received funding for compost application on their farms. In addition, we reached over 50 farmers through 2 workshops (approximately 25 attendees at each workshop). Given that many of our 48 farmers attended those workshops, we estimate that approximately 75 farmers directly benefited from our project.
As mentioned in our memo entitled "Barriers to compost implementation: Lessons from small-scale Latine farmers in California's Central Coast," the farmers in our networks often lack the secure land tenure required to build up soil organic matter and receive the associated benefits found by project GW13-011. Multiple of the farmers we are supporting with compost implementation have indicated that they may need to leave their parcels within the next 12 months. The issue of land tenure is largely outside of the focus of our organization’s work, yet it remains fundamentally important for the regional small-scale Latine farmers to achieve soil health goals. We recommend that future SARE grant recipients focus on the intersection of soil health and land tenure issues through a combination of advocacy and social science research.