Outreach and education to strengthen agriculture and livestock production in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas.

Commodities

Practices

Most of the food consumed in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI) is imported often from long distances. This food is mostly heavily processed, expensive, and unhealthy. In parallel, health problems like obesity and diabetes are widespread. Local food production is hindered by natural disasters such as typhoons, farm labor shortages, high production costs, limited markets, inefficient logistics, and diminished land suitability for farming. Technical assistance for extension professionals, farmers, ranchers, and other stakeholders is limited and has dwindled in recent years. The Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program in the CNMI is implemented by the Northern Marianas College (NMC)- Cooperative Research, Extension, Education Services (CREES) which carries the land-grant mission within NMC, CREES works collaboratively with farmers, ranchers, growers, government agencies, NGO's, community groups, and other stakeholders to provide outreach and educational support to promote sustainable technologies and practices in regenerative agriculture agroforestry, and livestock systems. Activities include farmer -to- farmer trainings, workshops, field--days, mini grants, media products (newsletters, press releases, success stories), technical reports, publications, Normalized Differential Vegetations Index maps, soil management recommendations, and others. All activities are open, inclusive, and respectful of local traditions and knowledge. These initiatives contribute to improve health, income, and resilience of local communities.

1. To increase skills of extension professionals, farmers, and other stakeholders by implement farmer-to-farmer trainings and workshops in the islands of Rota, Saipan, and Tinian. This will lead to increasing yields, natural resource conservation, and economic profits in the CNMI.
2. To assist stakeholders to obtain additional resources by offering mini grants to conduct projects on topics such as pest control (including rodents and feral animals), produce pricing, marketing, soil health, and others.
3. To enhance decision making about crop selection, land management, and farming practices by developing Normalized Difference Vegetation Mapping of the 120-acre Kagman Agriculture Area to identify areas with high, medium, and low crop productivity and health.
4. To assist farmers and other stakeholders individually or in groups using media to promote sustainable farming and ranching practices as well promoting Western SARE programs.