A Training and Educational Program to Ensure the South's Future

A Training and Educational Program to Ensure the South's Future

Summary

Provide USDA, NRCS, Extension and FSA personnel, state farm and forestry leaders, and other key team leaders the opportunity to acquire training in the guiding principles of farmland and forestland preservation. Equipped with this knowledge, these teams of agricultural and natural resource leaders within each Southern Region State and protectorate can become central resource personnel and contact persons on the issues vital to preserving the Southern Region’s farmland and forestland for future generations. Through the project, agricultural leaders and educators can help communities face the challenges of sustaining agriculture in a rapidly changing Southern region.

Objectives/Performance Targets

We created an advisory committee consisting of representatives from each of the thirteen states and two protectorates in the southern region. The committee met on October 27, 2002 following the National S.A.R.E. meeting in Durham, North Carolina. Advisory Committee members present included: Zona Beaty, NRCS, Alabama; Bo Beaulieu, Southern Rural Development Center, Mississippi; Victoria Bhavsar, University of Kentucky Department of Agronomy and Soil Sciences; Ben Boozer, Clemson University, South Carolina; David Brauer, ARS, Arkansas; Adell Brown, Southern University, Louisiana; Alex Hitt, Farmer, North Carolina; Savi Horne, Land Loss Prevention, North Carolina; William Hubbard, Warnell School of Forest Resources, Georgia; Jim Joyner, Farmer, Tennessee; Martha Monroe, University of Florida School of Forest Resources and Conservation; Mariette Hiu Newcomb, Farmer, Virginia; Jerry Pennick, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Georgia; La Rhea Pepper, Farmer, Texas; Rebecca Perez, Farmer, Puerto Rico; Carlos Robles, University of the Virgin Islands; Larry Sanders, Oklahoma State University; and Tom Trantham, Farmer, South Carolina. Others in attendance were: Jack Blair, Trust for Public Lands Oklahoma office; Jim Horne, Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture; Anita Poole, Kerr Center; Barbara Chester, Kerr Center; Matthew Scheidt, Trust for Public Lands Oklahoma office; Kevin Schmidt, American Farmland Trust; and Gerry Cohn, American Farmland Trust. Not in attendance were: Sherman Lewis, Langston University, Oklahoma; and Steve Carmichael, NRCS, Louisiana.

The first goal in this project was to build upon South Carolina’s SARE project from 2002. South Carolina’s project was led by Ben Boozer, and we asked Mr. Boozer to serve on our advisory committee to lend his guidance in putting together our training programs. He made a presentation to his fellow committee members to assist in building on the strong components of his farmland protection project, while hopefully avoiding and thing that did not work as well.

The second goal was to develop curriculum for the training sessions. The advisory committee was formed in part to address this objective. Additionally, while compiling the information packets, we have been in repeated contact with American Farmland Trust, and have sought further input by the advisory committee via email and some phone calls. We are in the process of scheduling a conference call to make final determinations of additional speakers for each workshop.

Accomplishments/Milestones

We held an advisory committee meeting on October 27, 2002, where pertinent issues were compiled which will be included in the training materials that will be presented at each of the training workshops. That information was transcribed in the form of minutes and sent to each of the advisory committee members for comment and/or correction. A copy of the minutes will be provided in the hard copy of the report as an attachment.

On the first goal of building on the accomplishments of the South Carolina project, Ben Boozer shared information about that project including: attendance problems; budget situation –no travel costs in the budget;lack of interest in state leadership; some audiences missed in marketing; relative newness of the group holding the meetings; continued interest in the resources that came from the meeting; and property rights need to be addressed.

We emailed requests to advisory committee members for further input and resources and collected the forthcoming information. All information received has been collected and also forwarded AFT for inclusion in the curriculum.

A tentative Agenda for each of the training sessions was developed based on the information gathered at the advisory committee meetings as well as from follow up communications from committee members. A copy of the agenda is included as an attachment with the submitted hard copy.

We received assistance from SARE Coordinators in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Georgia regarding preferred timing of the workshops in their states. From that assistance, we scheduled the three workshops at times and dates most convenient for agricultural professionals

We mailed an advertisement flyer to each of the state SARE Coordinators.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

We gathered a significant amount of information from advisory committee members regarding issues that need to be discussed at each of the meetings to ensure the relevancy of the trainings. For example, discussion of issues that need to be included were: how to identify barriers to accessing land trusts; intergenerational transfer and limited resource farming; estate planning, property rights and heir property; federal law vs. state law in territories because land ownership is different; how to get university “buy in,” and methodology; units to be viable farms; census of minority farms; agriculture zoning, and tax incentives; legislation,and population growth; rural/urban interface; new farmer programs and aging farmer income; better understanding of agriculture issues by state governments; strategic training with strong curriculum; forestry/urban interface; ability of landowner to continue in business; PDR programs and other economic opportunities; and encourage land trusts to invest in small land holdings.

The advisory committee suggested that the trainings be held in a one and one half day format to encourage networking between the participants. Following that advice, all training have been scheduled over a two day period each. The dates set are July 24-25, 2003 in Oklahoma City, August 5-6, 2003 in Memphis, TN, and August 12-13, 2003 in Atlanta, GA.

The resource notebook/curriculum is currently being developed by AFT with the assistant of three subcommittees specializing in three special topic areas including: minority and territorial issues; forestry issues; and farm transfer issues.