1989 Annual Report for LNC89-014.1
Beginning Farmer Sustainable Agriculture Project
Summary
Through the continuation of this project beginning farm families were organized into mutual-help networks in northeast Nebraska. A special advisory committee of beginning farm families helped shape the project. Specific support network activities will include short courses, informational workshops, construction workshops, farm tours, on-farm research and on-farm consultation with farm families. The project prepared descriptive case studies of participating farm families whoa greed to keep whole-farm record including finances, energy and chemical use and other environmental measures. A professional advisory committee assisted in developing evaluation criteria, procedures and data needs to provide objective measures of progress in establishing economically viable and environmentally sound farms.
Objectives
1. Organize mutual-help groups of beginning farmers. Group learning techniques will be used to advance the use of more sustainable farming methods among beginning farmers and assist them in establishing economically viable farming operations.
2. Support beginning farm families in practicing holistic farm management and using sustainable agriculture strategies for entering agriculture.
3. Evaluate progress of cooperating farm families toward developing economically viable and environmentally sustainable farms and evaluate this project as a potential model for use by the Extension Service, private organizations and other institutions.