Filling the Gap – Exposing Agricultural Professionals to New and Innovative Small-Farm Tools

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Crop Production: conservation tillage, Appropriate Technology and Innovations
• Education and Training: demonstration
• Pest Management: cultivation, physical control
• Sustainable Communities: urban agriculture

Sustainable agriculture requires an understanding of the balance between economic realities and environmental stewardship. A critical piece in this balance relies on appropriate farm equipment. The purchase and use of economically effective and appropriate farm tools, based on the size and specific needs of a farm, will ensure the most efficient use of labor, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase the overall sustainability of a farm business.

Individuals from government organizations (I.e., Natural Resource Conservation Service), Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs), non-profits, extension professionals, and certifiers, are responsible for providing farmers with relevant information and resources to ensure farmers are making practical and well-informed decisions. However, with continued consolidation of farms, many agricultural

organizations focus on larger-scale producers. The emphasis on larger-scale production results in agricultural professionals who are ill-equipped and lack an understanding of the tools and technology necessary for small-scale production, leaving them unable to effectively provide support to small-scale farmers.

This project aims to increase small-scale farmer access to innovative, practical, and economically viable farm equipment by providing agricultural professionals with hands-on opportunities to use and experiment with small-farm tools and resources to share with farmers in their communities. This project will include on-farm equipment demonstration workshops in California, Oregon, and Washington for agricultural professionals. We expect these daylong demonstrations will improve the knowledge of agricultural professionals and inspire them to share their knowledge and work with farmers to increase their access to these tools. We will also facilitate online outreach to agricultural professionals and compile tool-demonstration videos and written materials to share with participants and make available on our ATTRA website.

This project targets the second largest financial burden for farmers– equipment. The primary goal for this project is to increase the knowledge, skills, and technical capabilities of community agricultural professionals about small-scale, sustainable agricultural production tools in the Western Region of the United States. Enhancing the knowledge and technical skills of agricultural professionals will permit them to maximize their service to small-scale producers, and encourage the overall success of small-scale farming operations.

NCAT will do this by providing agricultural professionals with an opportunity to learn and understand the appropriate resources available to small-scale producers, and will in turn, reduce equipment barriers, and allow small-scale farmers to thrive in an ever-changing climate and difficult agricultural market. Over the course of this project, we will provide in-person education and informational resources to numerous agricultural professionals across California, Oregon, and Washington. This project will provide in-person and virtual learning opportunities for agricultural professionals along with video and written resources to use for their own outreach. We will gauge the success of this objective by measuring overall attendance at workshops; follow up surveys focused on the potential change outreach agriculture professional make after this workshop, and use of video and written outreach materials.