Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
Practices
- Education and Training: networking, workshop
- Farm Business Management: agritourism
- Sustainable Communities: sustainability measures, community development
Abstract:
Major accomplishments for this project include, increased awareness of the agritourism potential for the State of Indiana by educators across the State, increased awareness of the business planning process by the educators across the State, increased awareness of the partners and resources available to educators and producers.
As a result of the Indiana Agritourism Training Initiative, a Statewide Agritourism Conference was kicked off at the 2005 Indiana Horticulture Congress, with a continuation in 2006, and 2007.
Six regional workshops were conducted at various agritoruism businesses and locations around the State.
NxLevel classes were conducted with more than 30 pairs of producers and educators participating in the 10-week Business Planning Course.
An Indiana Resource Guide showcasing more than 200 pages worth of information was compiled and burned on a CD. 7000 CD’s were distributed across the State. The guide lists, by county, the resources available (both technical and financial) to educators and agritourism producers.
Most importantly countless relationships were started, strong partnerships were formed, the natural divide between agriculture and tourism has decreased in Indiana, movement has been made toward the establishment of an Indiana Agritourism Association, and the agritourism momentum continues.
Project objectives:
The short term outcomes for this project will include an increased awareness of the agritourism potential by educators across the state. 30 educators will increase their knowledge of the resources and partners that can assist producers in starting agritourism ventures on their farms. 25 educators and 25 producers will complete the NxLevel program. This will be broken down to five Educators and five Producers taking the program at five regional sites around the State. 25 educators will increase their knowledge in the steps needed to build an agritourism venture, with 25 educators gaining the skills to help producers write business plans, and 30 educators will consider agritourism a viable endeavor for sustainability on the farm by attending the workshops around the state.
Medium outcomes include that 25 educators will use skills learned to assist producers in building agritourism businesses on their farms, 20 educators will facilitate the development of agritourism teams around the state, five educators will conduct local workshops as a result of this training initiative, and 20 educators will use the resource guide.
The Long term outcome will be that a statewide network will be established to foster agritourism enterprises that will contribute to farm and rural sustainability.