Farmers harness the web to market their products

Farmers harness the web to market their products

Summary

This SARE Sustainable Community grant is a collaboration between WVU Extension Service and Collaborative for the 21st century Appalachia to identify and then provide the requisite training to farmers in all 55 counties who have previously lacked the confidence or skill sets necessary to sign on and take advantage of the state’s new communication infrastructure—the agricultural website wvfarm2u.org.

The wvfarm2u.org site provides a bulletin board available to the public where farmers can publicize their roadside stands and their pick-your-owns, etc., as well as sell their value added farm and artisan products. Communities can broadcast their Farmers Market and events such as a ramp supper. The site also provides a separate component where farmers can list their specialty products in order to sell to chefs increasing their potential for sales. This grant will assist farmers in signing on.

This SARE grant rounds out for the rest of the state Collaborative 21C’s initiative to establish a cadre of agricultural producers supplying high-end restaurants as well as retailing to the public with an enhanced level of quality product by matching a WV Development Office/ARC grant specifically targeted at the distressed counties. As a result of this initiative we expect to increase the amount of dollars spent by the public as well as high end restaurants in buying West Virginia products especially from small farm owners thereby allowing them to remain on their land and contribute to their community.

Objectives/Performance Targets

• To increase by 20% the network of agricultural producers who understand the financial advantage of marketing their farm products to both the public and chefs on the statewide agricultural website wvfarm2u.org.
• To increase by 20% the network of agricultural producers who actually (a) list their products on the “public side” of the site their on-the-farm or pick-your-own stands, etc. or (b) register to sell on the “farmer-to-chef e-market”.
• To employ direct marketing to increase demand, thereby driving prices up, and also to reduce waste, possibly through value added processing, as an equally important factor in increasing the bottom line.

Accomplishments/Milestones

We have scheduled, publicized and help meetings—using WVU Extension as well as other partners such as WV Department of Agriculture, Mountain State University and RAIL (Rural Appalachia Improvement League)—to alert farmers to the economic potential of their using WVfarm2U.org as a direct marketing tool.

Meetings specifically in distressed counties include in the Appalachian Coalfield Agricultural Symposium in Wyoming County (2 participants), Lewis (8 participants), and Mason (12 participants) counties. The interview with Extension Agent John Marra on Huntington’s channel 3 broadcast to these distressed counties: Lincoln, Mason, Mingo, Logan, Wyoming and McDowell, as well as at risk county: Boone.

In addition to those meetings, we have made presentations as a part of statewide meetings and conferences—such as WVU Extension Small Farm Conference (in excess of 150 attendees), Mountain State University Botanical’s Conference (65 attendees), and the West Virginia Sustainable Fair (35 attendees). Still another statewide meeting was the presentation to the WVU Extension Agents themselves (58 participants).

During the course of this project, Collaborative 21C established a new partnership with the West Virginia Sustainable Communities Project in Fayetteville. As a result, the student interns will be handing out flyers at their meetings to farmers who are potential users of the site urging them to contact Collaborative 21C’s help desk.

Other outputs include:

• A video training module has been completed in cooperation with Pierpont Community and Technical College for interested farmers to borrow (without charge) from their county Extension Agent. As part of this development there were 5 meetings with farmers and WVU Extension Agents or educational technology specialists about what information should be included in training materials being prepared at Pierpont Community and Technical College.

• 24 Culinary demonstrations (3 each day) focusing on how to use WV farm products at the WV State Fair in Lewisburg in August presented by the state’s finest culinary talent and will be a follow-up to this grant. C21C staff will be available to assist in registration for the website for interested farmers.

• There are 47 completed evaluations from these various sessions included in this final report jacket.

• The following group of chefs participated in the various events, donated their time to this effort: Dale Hawkins, Executive Chef Stonewall Resort; Tim Urbanic, Café Cimino; and Chef Brian Floyd, from Pierpont Community and Technical College; Ben Mole, the Blennerhasset; Scott Duarte, Charles Pointe and Melanie Campbell, Graceland. All of the meeting space was donated.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

This process engaged participants in two important changes: (1) behaviorial change and also (2) a change in skill sets. The evaluation tool used in our meetings captures participants’ responses relating to both issues with these responses:

• 73% of the participants had no previous acquaintance with the website.
• 98% of the participants were interested in registering on the site.
• 98% were interested in registering because they saw internet marketing as an opportunity to increase sales.
• 93% were interested in a no charge session about marketing their products on the web.
• 85% indicated interest free access to video modules about value-added products.
• 90% wanted to work with Collaborative 21C to get more information on post-harvest processing and packaging.
• 90% were not familiar with PayPal—the account that will be used on the West Virginia farm website.
• 68% were interested in getting more information about that type of account.
• 100% said the information presented at the session was important to their farm business—90% very important and 10% somewhat important.
• 100% said the information was likely to positively impact their bottom line—90% very likely and 10% likely.