Development of Extension Programming to Support the Advancement of Agritourism in the Northeast

Development of Extension Programming to Support the Advancement of Agritourism in the Northeast

Summary

This project convenes a multistate team to develop and deliver train-the-trainer educational resources to agricultural educators and service providers in order to assist Northeast farmers in (1) mitigating financial risk through accurate enterprise budgeting, (2) minimizing risk and liability associated with farm visitations, and (3) improving marketing strategies. Guided by a Project Advisory Committee and a farmer needs assessment survey, the project team will develop several educational resources including an online, interactive financial calculator; a self-assessment tool for farmers to evaluate their marketing and risk management strategies; a series of educational video segments on Avoiding On-Farm Hazards; and, fact sheets on best practices in agritourism liability management and marketing, and enterprise budgeting. A multi-tiered delivery system comprising workshops, webinars and electronic resources will be employed to maximize the extent and impact of training delivery across the project area (New Jersey, Vermont, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware).

Objectives/Performance Targets

The goal of this project is to provide training and educational resources to Extension personnel and other agricultural educators in the Northeast needed to assist clientele with the development and marketing of safe, risk-managed agritourism operations. However, to evaluate the efficacy of this training, the ultimate anticipated impact on farm viability in the region needs to be benchmarked. Our performance target is: thirty (30) agricultural educators will utilize training from this project to develop and deliver outreach programs to Northeast farmers, leading 200 farmers to develop or revise marketing strategies to increase agritourism revenues or adopt new risk and liability management strategies to improve farm safety.

Accomplishments/Milestones

In 2014, state, multistate, and national programming efforts were undertaken to deliver and distribute educational and training resources to a wide base of clientele, including farmers, Extension professionals, agricultural educators and service providers, community and economic development professionals, and government agency staff.  This report highlights notable accomplishments and examples of programming that will occur in the final months of the project period.

Educational Outreach Activities and Training Sessions (Examples)

• September 2013 – Engaging the Public on Working Farms: Successes and Challenges of Agritourism. National Farm Viability Conference, Middlebury, Vermont. (15 attendees).
• October 2013 – Farm-Based Education Forum: Agritourism, Education, and Economics on Your Farm. Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont. (143 attendees).
• January 2014 – Marketing Farm Experiences to Increase Product Sales. Held at the Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA-VT) Direct Marketing Conference, Royalton, Vermont. (10 attendees).
• February 2014 – Farm Safety Advice to Protect Agritourism Farms from Legal Liability. New Jersey Agricultural Convention and Trade Show. Atlantic City, NJ.  (51 attendees).
• February 2014 – Tips to Manage Liability and Help Avoid Conflicts in Agritourism Operations. New Jersey Agricultural Convention and Trade Show. Atlantic City, NJ. (35 attendees).
• February 2014 – Training session offered at a regional Women in Agriculture Conference (women producers in DE, MD, NJ). (Approx. 40 attendees).
• March 2014 – Building Collaborative Networks to Strengthen Vermont Agritourism. Held at the Green Mountain Girls Farm, Northfield, Vermont. (20 attendees).
• March 2014 – ABC’s of Farm-Based Education. Held at Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont. (27 attendees).
• March 2014 – Agritourism in-Service Training for Agriculture Service Providers, with a focus on maple production. Merrifield Farm Gorham, Maine. (4 attendees)
• May 2014 – Tools and Resources for Farms with Direct Sales of Products and Experiences. Extension Professional Improvement Conference (EPIC). Vergennes, Vermont. (15 attendees).
• June 2014 – Agritourism In-Service Training for Agriculture Service Providers. Pietree Orchard, Sweden, Maine. (6 attendees)
• August 2014 – Designing Your Farm Retail Space. Co-organized with NOFA-VT and Shelburne Farms. Killdeer Farm, Norwich, Vermont. (22 attendees).
• October 2014 – Training sessions offered at the Farm-Based Education Forum: Agritourism, Education and Economics on Your Farm (Shelburne Farms, VT). (Approx. 140 conference attendees).
• October 2014 – Agritourism Study Tour of Quebec. Bus Tour of Farms in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. (35 attendees).
• Four presentations to county boards of agriculture in NJ (roughly 105 farmers, 20 agency/service providers)
• In-service training sessions with Extension personnel throughout project states.
• On-farm agritourism site assessments (“SWOT” evaluations).
• One-on-one farmer consultations.
• The team collectively distributed several hundred hard copy versions of farm evaluation checklists, incident response forms, and website flyers.

Web Statistics

The project website (http://agritourism.rutgers.edu) continues to be a repository for all educational resources developed or compiled to advance the project’s training deliverables.  Since its inception (September 2013), the website has had 3,564 hits from 1,125 users.  Web analytics are routinely monitored to track views and downloads of each resource or tool.  Popular resources in the 2014 calendar year include:

• Interactive Corn Maze Budget Tool: 378 views
• Assessing on-farm risk training video: 236 plays
• Training modules: 276 downloads
• Agritourism Farm Assessment Checklists: 142 downloads
• Recorded Agritourism Safety & Liability Management Webinars (x2): 22 views

In addition to the project website, a redesigned statewide (New Jersey) agritourism marketing platform was developed and launched in April 2014 (http://visitnjfarms.org) to facilitate and support agritourism marketing efforts and social media advertising.  The site currently has 232 registered farms (51 new registered farms are attributable to the marketing-related programming supported by this grant and 109 farms have updated their marketing presence, most often through the creation or expansion of social media promotional efforts).

Planned Activities (selected), 2015

Welcoming Customers on Your Farm: Using Agritourism, Education, and Direct Sales to Increase Farm Profits (a peer-to-peer educational program hosted in Rutland, VT on April 7-8, 2015).  Workshop proposal accepted, attendance confirmed.

January 2015 – Risk Management for Direct Marketers workshop at the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention (Hershey, PA).  Proposal accepted, attendance confirmed.

January 2015 – Agritourism Safety and Liability Management workshop at the NOFA-NJ 25^th Anniversary Winter Conference (Lincroft, NJ).  Proposal accepted, attendance confirmed.

February 2015 – Retail Marketing & Agritourism session at the 2015 NJ State Agricultural Convention and Trade Show (Atlantic City, NJ).  Proposal accepted, attendance confirmed.

May 2015 – Tools and Resources to Promote Best Practices in Agritourism workshop at the 2015 National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals annual meeting (Little Rock, AR)

Fall 2015 – Undergraduate class, Farm Direct Marketing and Agritourism, to be offered at Rutgers University.

October 2015 – Participation in the National Extension Tourism Conference (Galveston, TX) is anticipated.

Continued on-site farm evaluations and consultations (SWOT assessments) by Rutgers Cooperative Extension’s Agritourism Working Group.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Preliminary Evaluation Data

Preliminary project evaluation data reveal strong acceptance and influence of the training materials within the Extension/agricultural service provider community and among farmers.  Evaluation data will be presented in the Final Project Report.  Initial qualitative data point to farm-level adoption  of recommended practices emerging from this project.  Examples include:

• Development of “incident response forms” to record accidents and other adverse occurrences on agritourism/direct marketing farms.
• Initiation of daily farm inspections and “walk-throughs” to evaluate farm safety conditions.
• Development of farm staff employment guides or contracts.
• Expansion or refinement of on-line farm marketing and promotional efforts (including adoption of social media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, You Tube, etc.).
• Incorporation of indemnification waivers to manage farm liability.
• Addition of “this is a working farm” signage.

 Additional Metrics of Project Impact/Recognition

The project website has earned several regional or national awards, including the National Association of County Agricultural Agents Communications Award (Northeast winner) and American Society for Horticulture Sciences Extension Division National Award for Outstanding Website.  In addition, the educational/training modules have been recognized by the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (Northeast winner and National runner-up in the educational package category) and National Association of County Agricultural Agents (Communications Award,  Learning Module Category).  Lastly, one educational resource (“Budgeting for a corn maze” – Rutgers Cooperative Extension publication E343) was a National Finalist for the National Association of County Agricultural Agents Communications Award.

Collaborators: