Farmer Interviews as a Tool for Educating Agricultural Support Personnel and Other Farmers

Farmer Interviews as a Tool for Educating Agricultural Support Personnel and Other Farmers

Summary

This project creates a video presentation of six 20- to 30-minute segments on selected topics of sustainable agriculture and trains agricultural service providers through half-day workshops in using the video and supplementary materials in their work with farmers. The selected topics include startup and financing, cropping and livestock practices, marketing, risk management, transitioning systems, and adopting sustainable agriculture practices on large conventional farms.

To date, the project is on schedule and within budget. The work completed to date includes preliminary editing of the original 30+ hours of film footage and enlisting support from Extension and NRCS personnel to promote the workshops.

Objectives/Performance Targets

This projects creates a video presentation of six 20- to 30-minute segments on selected topics of sustainable agriculture and trains agricultural support personnel in using the video and supplementary materials in their work with farmers. The selected topics include startup and financing, cropping and livestock practices, marketing, risk management, transitioning systems, and adopting sustainable agriculture practices on large conventional farms. The video presentation will be made at two half-day workshops to groups of Cooperative Extension and NRCS personnel, farm-lending institution staff, and University of Maine students, in order for them to learn how sustainable agriculture practitioners have started, adopted, or managed sustainable systems.

Accomplishments/Milestones

To date, the project is on schedule and within budget. The video topics have been edited from the 30+ hours of video footage down to three hours. The edited video segments will be reviewed for final editing by the project team, and completion of the video segments is expected in January 2002. The half-day workshops are planned for February and March 2002.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Impacts and outcomes are expected after finalizing the video segments and after holding the half-day workshops.

Collaborators: