Soil Health Education for Socially Disadvantaged and Urban Producers in Eastern and Southwest Arkansas

Commodities

Practices

The UAPB Program Assistant will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the SARE Program. This individual will plan and help in implementing all activities and events conducted for the program. The Program Assistant will stay in contact with the 1862 Program Assistant and look for ways in which the two Program Assistants can work together. The Program Assistant will work directly with the UAPB Agents and the UAPB Partners: EAEC and SHHCDC. These groups will be assisted in arranging and conducting training and educational workshops on soil health principles for farmers. 

The Program Assistant will identify appropriate training and conferences for the agents to attend in order to increase their knowledge of soil health. In addition, the Program Assistant will work with agents to develop a list of participants using soil health practices. The Program Assistant will produce a final report from the activities that occurred during the year and present the report to the UAPB Staff.

The current training will remain basically the same as the prior training. Therefore, training for agents will focus on soil health with an emphasis on vegetables and row crops. Consequently, the UAPB agents will attend workshops and conferences on soil health, emphasizing vegetable and row crop production. The agents will also meet with NRCS State Office EQIP Staff representatives to be updated on soil health conservation practices and climate-smart conservation practices.

Implementing soil health practices may take trial and error occasions. It may take several years for some farmers to work out or develop a good soil health program. They will try many different tools. This is also true for the agents at UAPB. Therefore, there is a great need to continue this type of education.

The objectives are:

To provide soil health education to agents and Socially Disadvantaged Producers (SDPs) with education on conservation programs and practices that could be used to accomplish their soil health goals.

To provide high tunnels, cover crops, and raised beds demonstration to educate agents and farmers, including urban gardeners, on sustainable agriculture practices for the different enterprises.

To assist individuals in food desert areas in developing community gardens using sustainable agriculture practices.