Farm Foundations Short Course for Beginning Farmers of Specialty Crops

Project Overview

EDS24-066
Project Type: Education Only
Funds awarded in 2024: $49,995.00
Projected End Date: 03/31/2026
Grant Recipient: University of Arkansas
Region: Southern
State: Arkansas
Principal Investigator:
Heather Friedrich
Email
University of Arkansas
Co-Investigators:
Dr. Jennie Popp
Email
University of Arkansas

Commodities

Not commodity specific

Practices

  • Education and Training: short course
  • Farm Business Management: farmers' markets/farm stands
  • Sustainable Communities: local and regional food systems, sustainability measures

    Proposal abstract:

    The goals of this project are to reach aspiring and beginning farmers with a series of in-depth short courses that are based on the Center for Arkansas Farms and Food, Farm School curriculum. Seventy-five unique participants will be reached through six short courses over two years. Participants will be trained at the CAFF Farm School field and classroom facilities, in Fayetteville AR, on sustainable specialty crop production methods and business practices for local food markets.  The project will leverage existing resources including a tested farmer training curriculum based on experiential learning methods, farm training facilities and instructor experiences, a strong state-wide CAFF following with over 3000 Facebook followers and 1000 members in the CAFF database, and established relationships with successful local farmers and farm support organizations. At project completion, participants will have increased knowledge, skills and confidence to increase their farm production with organic and regenerative methods and increase their distribution through sales or donations. Pre- and post-course assessments will determine changes in knowledge and confidence and an end-of-project evaluation will assess the impact of the trainings.

    Project objectives from proposal:

    The overarching goal of this project is increase the accessibility of the CAFF Farm School content by repackaging select modules into an intensive short-course format.

    Based on this goal, our specific objectives include:

    1. Reach 75 farmers/aspiring farmers in six short courses over a two-year timeline
    2. Improve the knowledge and confidence of participants in specific specialty crop production and business topic areas through pre and post tests.
    3. Show a measurable increase in the amount of produce sold or donated by participants through an end-of-project evaluation.
    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.