University of Arkansas- Pine Bluff Training Grant- MSP22

Commodities

Practices

This project will provide sustainable agriculture education to vegetable crop, row crop, and underserved individuals in food desert areas in southwest Arkansas. To do this the project will provide the UAPB staff with education and training on soil health and sustainable agriculture from selected individuals. This training will be virtual. If possible, some trainings will be face-to-face. The UAPB staff will also receive training from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) on sustainable conservation practices and the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) which provides funding to help producers install conservation practices. This education will help the staff to make sound decisions when educating producers on sustainable agriculture practices and soil health.

To help with the sustainable agriculture training, UAPB will have access to a high tunnel that will be available for demonstrating the use of high tunnels and sustainable agriculture practices in high tunnels. For underserved individuals in food desert areas, raised beds and other sustainable garden practices will be demonstrated at UAPB and in selected underserved communities.

The UAPB staff will educate producers both in group meetings and in one-on-one situations.
Producers will be invited to participate in the training that will be conducted for the UAPB staff.
Also, many recommendations will be made during field visits or while on-site at the farm operation.
The farmers will also be encouraged to apply for a producer's grant to address concerns on their farms.

This project will target Socially Disadvantaged Producers (SDPs) and Socially Disadvantaged Individuals (SDIs) in food deserts. The trainees will be provided with sustainable agriculture and soil health education to get them knowledge and comfortable with the subjects. They will also help in setting up the demonstrations that will be used to teach the targeted audience. The combination of education and demonstrations will help trainees to understand and better promote sustainable agriculture practices. The training objectives are:

• To provide intense soil health and sustainable agriculture education to UAPB professionals that will allow them to feel confident and comfortable in providing soil health and sustainable education to SDPs.
• To educate the UAPB staff on the use of high tunnels and the use of sustainable agricultural production practices in high tunnels.
• To provide the UAPB staff with education and training on sustainable agriculture garden production practices to assist socially disadvantaged individuals in food deserts.
• To provide the UAPB staff with training and education on NRCS sustainable conservation practices for vegetable crops and high tunnels.