5 Future Trainers: Developing a farmer run agriculture production monitoring program for the Farmer’s Cooperative Association of Guam (FCAG)

View the project final report

Commodities

• Fruits: melons
• Vegetables: beans, cucurbits, eggplant, peppers, sweet corn

Practices

• Education and Training: farmer to farmer
• Farm Business Management: farm-to-institution, marketing management

For 25-30 years, Guam has struggled to collect data from locally produced farm products. WSARE PDP program has worked with Farmer’s Cooperative Association of Guam (FCAG)  for a decade in developing their penetration into local markets. Now, wholesale operations handle the farmer's output, and buyers need more accurate farmer production reporting and monthly harvest projections. The FCAG needs a central production monitoring and near-term (1-2 month) harvest projection in the house system. To be easily maintained by the FCAG, such a system should be spreadsheet-based. UOG developed a similar system for the regional departments of Agriculture between 1996 and 1998 under the ADAP Market Information System. It started as a series of spreadsheet templates with crop and fruit-specific local and regional production data (yield, plant spacing, time to harvest, length of harvest, etc.) Unfortunately, Guam DoAG stopped monitoring farmer production monthly in 1999. This project will utilize the data from this effort but develop a custom set of spreadsheets for the FCAG and its seventy members' needs to manage production data, identify proven yields, and enable monthly harvest estimates. The project will utilize local agricultural professionals (and pay honorariums) to assist in developing the system and training FCAG members in reporting and the FCAG Board of Directors and Staff in system data entry and maintenance. The 3 years of accumulated data from the 70 farms will be compiled and compared to the estimated yields from the 2016 UOG Guam Crop Charts publication to revise these Extension Publications.

1. Determine the opportunities and barriers in running a farmer production monitoring system for member farmers.
2. Determine the yields of the 10-plus core Guam crops monitored under this project to improve the FCAG's monthly harvest estimates.
3. Teach the core farmer management team the use and maintenance of the production monitoring system.
4. Conducted farmer training for member farmers on field production monitoring, yield documentation, and reporting.

On May 25, 2023, Typhoon Mawar, a category 4 typhoon, hit Guam. Agricultural crops were destroyed. It took nearly 8 months for Guam to recover from the damage caused by Typhoon Mawar. As the farmers started planting crops again, the University of Guam Extension & Outreach (UOG/E&O) team coordinated a farmer workshop at UOG on February 28^th, 2024. The meeting included inviting the 5 FCAG farmers/producers to reintroduce them to the process for collecting harvest data on their farms.

The E&O team presented an incentive program to encourage farmers to keep and report crop production data. The incentive program paid a $100.00 honorarium to each farmer each month (5 months, March–July) for production data ($500.00 total). Each farmer was given the option of either an Excel sheet (hard copy) to fill in the information themselves or a Google document to complete online. The hard copy required them to call FCAG and the University of Guam UOG team to report the crop's progress, whereas the Google document automatically uploads the information. The incentive also included a $250.00 honorarium for hosting a farm workshop (2 farm workshops) on their farm. The workshops served as a mentorship program that focused on the importance of monitoring production and collecting and reporting the crop's actual yield at harvest.

UOG/E&O leveraged a peer education model to reach 70-100 workshop attendees. In 2022, the team coordinated 3 FCAG meetings at the Farmers Co-op in Dededo, attracting 16 people (10 FCAG members and 6 UOG/E&O team members). In 2023, the E&O PI and the UOG Project manager facilitated a mentorship process, coordinating 4 farm workshops at 4 of the initial 5 FCAG farm sites. The UOG PI and Project manager demonstrated to the farmer how to collect harvest data. The 4 workshops were conducted over 4 months. (17 people attended).
In 2024, the team coordinated a farmer workshop at UOG, inviting the 5 FCAG farmers/producers to reintroduce them to the process for collecting harvest data on their farms. 8 people attended (5 farmers and 3 UOG/E&O team members). From 2023-2025, the UOG/E&O team coordinated 7 farm workshops, attracting 59 participants (30 producers and 29 UOG/E&O team members). From 2022 to 2025, the WSARE 5 Future Trainers project attracted 83 attendees who learned the basics of recording field yield data.

Unfortunately, the FCAG was unable to provide a project manager and 1 employee to assist E&O in coordinating training, compiling production data, and developing educational materials. The UOG E&O was able to develop a (draft) short fact sheet on how to collect yield data on locally grown crops and yield data for 10 crop cycles. 1. 3 Chili pepper cycles (10 to 21 weeks) 2. 2 eggplant cycle (8 weeks) 3. 2 tomato cycles 8 weeks) 4. 2 Yard-long bean cycles (4 weeks) 5. 1 Leafy lettuce cycle. The yield data collected from 2023-2025 will be used to update the 2016 UOG Guam Crop Charts publication. This is the list of the information collected:

1. Crop and variety.
2. Date of planting/estimated day of harvest
3. Number of plants planted per row/distance between each plant.
4. Expected harvest/per 100-foot row/per Acre.
5. Actual harvest/per 100-foot row/ Acre
6. Duration of harvest

The 6 original farmers on the WSARE grant (Ernie Wusstig, Katherina Reyes, Jeff Kosaka, Joseph Paulino, Mike Aguon, Thomas Camacho) remain inactive on the grant. As of June 2026, the UOG team had recruited 3 new farmers. 1. Farm to Table 2. Kenan Quinata 3. Glenn Takai. The 3 farmers have consistently reported and monitored the crops they are growing. Only one farmer, Glenn Takai, has conducted three on-farm workshops focused on maintaining crop yields.

UOG E&O paid honoraria to two farmers who agreed to be interviewed for a short 2–3-minute video that demonstrated to other farmers how they collect production data and the benefits of doing so. UOG E&O has produced the draft video and will eventually post it on the UOG website and other social media platforms. The short 2-3-minute video will also help to reach more established and future farmers who cannot attend the on-farm workshops.

The 3 trained farmers/producers and the short 2-3 video will help train and mentor farmers who wish to participate in the coming years. The accumulated data from the participating farms will be compared to the estimated yields from the 2016 UOG Guam Crop Charts publication. Comparing the two data sets will enable the FCAG and producers to make more accurate harvest projections in the future.

In the coming months, UOG E&O will collaborate with FCAG and its members to disseminate the fact sheet and a short video on how to collect yield data for locally grown crops to the Guam Department of Agriculture, the Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association, and the Guam Economic Development Agency.

Establishing production monitoring and harvest projections for crops on a farm offers many benefits, as the knowledge gained from the practice enables the farm/organization to adequately plan for price stability and expansion into new markets. The above reasons are why UOG and FCAG teamed up in 2021 to find WSARE grant funding.

The UOG E&O team encountered numerous barriers throughout the WSARE project. The first problem was that the farmers enlisted at the onset of the grant are not currently active.

1. Mike Aguon (FCAG Southern Farmer) - No farm activity (2023, 2024, 2025).
2. Joe Paulino (FCAG Southern Farmer) – Stopped farming.
3. Katherina Reyes - FCAG Project manager (FCAG Northern Farmer) No farm activity (2023, 2024). Stopped farming.
4. Ernie Wusstig (FCAG Northern Farmer) - Inconsistent reporting (2023, 2024, 2025).
5. Thomas Camacho (FCAG Northern Farmer) - Inconsistent reporting (2023, 2024, 2025).
6. Jeff Kosaka (FCAG Southern Farmer) – Inconsistent reporting (2023, 2024)

Even though the “5 Future Trainers Grant” lost the six initial farmers, the three new farmers, Glenn Takai, Farm to Table, and Kenan Quinata, were able to provide us with 10 actual harvest yields from 5 crops: 1 Pepper (Chili), 2 Eggplant, 3 Tomatoes (cherry and grape), 4 Yard-long beans, and 5 Leafy lettuce. Because the sample size is small, more data is needed to make any real change to the yield data we are following now. The “5 Future Trainers Grant” could not collect data for 10 crops as originally planned, but the grant-funded efforts trained 83 attendees from the workshops over the three-year grant period on how to collect harvest data in the field.