Regional Food Transportation for Texas Farmers

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Farm Business Management: marketing management
• Sustainable Communities: infrastructure analysis, local and regional food systems

Regional food systems offer the potential to greatly improve agricultural sustainability. However, in the face of increasing competition, regional farmers must find ways of expanding their market reach to a larger number of buyers to ensure the survival of their farms. Larger markets are typically located in urban centers that are geographically distant from farmers, and most small and mid-sized farmers do not have the necessary transportation infrastructure in place to support efficient distribution.  This project investigated the transportation challenges faced by Texas farmers and ranchers, with an aim to design, develop, and pilot a transportation management tool that will help these farmers begin to build efficient, collaborative regional food transportation networks.  The overarching goal of the project was to increase the capabilities of the Texas regional food distribution system by increasing the market reach of farmers, thereby increasing farm incomes and long-term financial resilience.

This project followed a systems engineering approach, in which we elicited transportation challenges and requirements from regional food system stakeholders in Texas via interviews and focus groups. We found that farmers and ranchers are excited about the possibility of an online transportation platform that would allow them to collaborate with other producers and trusted members of their communities to reduce time spent on transportation and increase their market reach. We used this data to determine and prioritize functions that an online transportation platform must perform to meet farmers’ requirements.  Based on this analysis, along with ideas gleaned from a study of existing online transportation platforms, we designed and developed a collaborative transportation app for farmers. The app is designed to facilitate connections between “senders” (i.e., farmers with products to ship) and “carriers” (i.e., farmers or other people who are willing to provide transportation). We asked farmers to test the app and provide feedback on its design and functionality. Most of the feedback we received was positive, with several farmers asking how soon we could make the app available for use. We integrated many of their suggestions and then performed another round of feedback elicitation and design improvements.  Going forward, we intend to make this app available to regional food communities in Texas to help them overcome their transportation challenges.

To address the challenges that farmers face in reaching urban markets, the objectives of this project are to:

• Increase our understanding of the transportation capabilities and needs of small and medium-scale Texas farmers
• Define and reach consensus on a set of regional food transportation collaboration platform functions that are necessary to address existing shortcomings
• Design a transportation collaboration platform that will enable farmers to connect with one another and with regional transportation providers
• Prototype and test the transportation management tool to elicit and integrate farmer feedback