Empowering African-American Farmers: Addressing Mississippi's “Black Agrarianism” Sustainability Challenges through Voice and Representation

View the project report

Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: extension, focus group, on-farm/ranch research, workshop

Many Black farming communities reside in Mississippi; however, they only represent 12.04% of the farming population compared to 86.76% of White farmers in Mississippi (USDA Census of Agriculture, 2022). Social equity plays a profound role in ensuring sustainable agriculture. The progressive disregard of Mississippian Black farmers' voices and representation is a growing concern, projecting prominent racial inequity and threatening farming sustainability. In response to this issue, there is a need to involve collective insights from the Black farming community, Extension professionals representing Mississippi State University (1862), Alcorn State University (1890), and key informants in agricultural organizations to identify strategic initiatives for addressing the low representation issues of Mississippian Black farmers. Using an exploratory qualitative approach, this project aims to: 1) investigate the embedded challenges that hinder Black farmers from contributing to farming, and 2) explore current strategies used by two Land-grant universities in the state and local agriculture organizations in empowering Mississippian Black farming communities (e.g., Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station). The collective insights from the above objectives will have the following implications: (1) share recommendations for administrators to be incorporated into strategic year plans, (2) develop in-service extension training focused on fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion practices for empowering the Black farming community, to be delivered to Extension professionals working with farmers in Agriculture and Natural Resources, community development, and 4-H divisions in Mississippi, and (3) share lessons learned so that they could be applied in other southern region states.

1. To investigate the embedded challenges that hinder Black farmers from contributing to farming.
2. To explore the current strategies used by two Land-grant universities and local agriculture organizations in empowering Mississippi's Black farming communities in farming (e.g., Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station).
3. To share lessons learned that will be incorporated into the Mississippi State’s strategic yearly plans, informing the development of extension training focused on fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion practices to empower the Black farming community.