Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
Proposal abstract:
In the wake of the impacts of Super Typhoon Mawar on Guam, addressing family and island-wide food insecurity remains a pressing concern. In light of recent findings and the challenges brought, Guam PDP is dedicated to collaborating with both existing and new members of our advisory committee and recognize the importance of engaging discussions with key stakeholders in the agriculture sector. The team continues to seek innovative and non-traditional partnerships to address this critical issue and our team offers a curriculum that can be adapted to meet the evolving needs of our community.
Key objectives include: linking government agencies and farmer groups to provide New Farmer Trainings, promoting sustainable agricultural production practices (both modern and traditional), promoting sustainable agricultural grants and rebuild links within the Micronesian region, providing support for the INSPIRE grant, providing technical support for the Guam Master Food Preserver Program, and promoting a sub-regional conference in the Micronesia area in collaboration with partners.
The program will encompass a wide range of topics, including subsistence production systems, sustainable soil and water conservation practices, farm planning strategies, permaculture and agroforestry practices, addressing food security issues, promoting government/federal programs, and facilitating access and submissions of WSARE grants. The team will continue to utilize various methods of program delivery, including online platforms, publications, videos, and demonstration sites to ensure that our resources and knowledge reach as many individuals and communities in Guam and the wider Western Pacific region.
Project objectives from proposal:
Objective 1. Increase island food security through the promotion of subsistence agriculture, agroforestry, and other
sustainable agriculture systems for Guam's limited resource families micro-plot forest gardens should reduce spending on food and provide family food diversity. Selected agroforestry practices and micro-plot utilization directly alleviates many of the most pressing constraints reported by our regions farmers: poor rocky soils, lack of weed control, sloping
land, and limited time/labor, equipment, and capital. Agroforestry practices such as mulching, for example, enriches the soil and suppresses weed growth. More importantly, a micro-plot approach addresses time, labor, equipment, and capital limitations by maximizing the productivity of a small plot of land for small producers. Increasing the abilities of many families to produce on the lands they have, will stabilize and grow the agricultural production community.
Objective 2. Link government agencies and farmer groups to provide New Farmer Trainings. Forging connections between government agencies and farmer groups to deliver New Farmer Trainings is essential to curriculum adoption and increasing producer knowledge and skills.
Objective 3. Increase capacity of outreach professionals to support farmer implementation of sustainable agriculture
practices. PDP will promote sustainable agricultural production practices, both modern and traditional (agroforestry) through curriculum development and by promoting SARE grants through grant writing workshops. Also, will lead collaborations among agriculture professionals to develop curriculum, demonstrations, workshops, and project
plans/proposals. Explore online program development activities and workshop delivery for these efforts.
Objective 4. Promote sustainable agricultural grants and rebuild links within the Micronesian region, and re-engage
Farmer-Chef efforts and increase links within the local food industry.
Objective 5. Provide support for the INSPIRE grant and the Guam Master Food Preserver's Program. These projects are integral to increasing knowledge in food security and sustainable agricultural practices, and our support will ensure their
continued success.