Advancing Soil Health and Resilience for Specialty Crop Farmers Through Regional Collaboration

Commodities

Practices

This project addresses the need for accessible soil health knowledge and resources among beginning, specialty crop farmers in the North Central Region. While many of these farmers possess valuable, time-tested agricultural knowledge, they have shared that they face challenges adapting to farming conditions on new land sites in the North Central region as well as accessing relevant technical resources. Small and beginning specialty crop producers, including those LSI works with, often do not have access to large amounts of capital or sufficient and readily available resources to implement new practices on their own. This project will bridge farmer identified gaps by enhancing skills and providing support for soil testing, composting, and weather resilience strategies, helping farmers navigate challenges as they move to larger sites and connect with additional markets.

LSI staff members working with partners including Iowa State University Extension, the local USDA Natural Resource Conservation Services (NRCS) office, Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), and lead farmers, will modify existing educational materials and provide tailored, in-field technical assistance for beginning, specialty crop farmers, growing fruits, vegetables and related local crops. The project will focus on improved soil health to directly contribute to productivity, pest and disease control and weed management to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather and enhance farm long- term farm viability.

While the project primarily serves farmers that are enrolled in LSI's Beginning Farmers (BF) incubator and education program, its reach extends beyond this local community. We regularly engage farmers from across the region, including those without agricultural backgrounds, at regional field days, conferences, and our LSI BF hosted markets. Many of these individuals, who struggle with jargon-heavy resources, seek out LSI’s accessible materials for their own specialty crop and urban farms. Having technical partners increases our reach to share information learned throughout this project.

By focusing on soil health, weather related incident resilience and continued work with a regional community of practice, this project builds on past work and introduces new solutions for the long-term success of farms, a valuable resource for the broader North Central farming community.

1. Soil health training to improve land for profitability.

• 50 farmers use practices that increase production.
• 100 farmers increase knowledge of practices increasing production

2. Community of Practice increases farmer resources.

• Toolkit on regenerative practices used in the region.
• Toolkit shared with 500 growers in the LSI pipelines and others in the region to strengthen knowledge and connectivity.

3. Farmers/Stakeholders Trained as Trainers/Ambassadors in the Healthy Food System.

• 5 mentors implement training on regenerative ag practices and food systems with 50 farmer trainees annually.
• 10 mentors increase their knowledge of new regenerative and healthy food system practices.