Project Overview
Commodities
- Fruits: avocados, bananas, citrus, figs, papaya
- Vegetables: beans, cucurbits, eggplant, greens (leafy), okra, peppers, sweet potatoes, taro, tomatoes
- Additional Plants: ginger
- Animals: fish, poultry
- Animal Products: eggs
Practices
- Animal Production: animal protection and health, aquaculture, manure management
- Crop Production: agroforestry, contour farming, cover crops, cropping systems, forest farming, intercropping, irrigation, nutrient management, windbreaks
- Education and Training: demonstration, extension, networking, technical assistance, workshop, youth education
- Farm Business Management: business planning, cooperatives, value added
- Natural Resources/Environment: hedgerows, soil stabilization
- Pest Management: mulches - general, mulches - living
- Production Systems: aquaponics, permaculture
- Soil Management: composting, organic matter, soil quality/health
Abstract:
The Guam WSARE PDP has three focus areas for professional training and program development:
1) Adapting New Farmer Curriculum for use by Outreach/Education Professionals that do not have agricultural backgrounds and delivery to nontraditional clients, by training professionals in use of this curriculum for use in home and subsistence gardener and other contexts. The program attempts to integrate earlier developed curriculum into formats suitable for other audiences. Inputs include; local Smith Lever funds, PDP funds, UOG CE&O new Community Healthy Living program staff and expertise from UOG: CES & AES & SBDC, NRCS and DoAG staff, and other agriculture, food, and health professionals. WSARE PDP will facilitate agricultural subsistence and market need assessment, program planning, and coordination of curriculum development and role modeling.
2) Agricultural Professional Support for capacity building in technical support of agricultural producers, (including subsistence producers and home market gardeners). In the past WSARE PDP effort focused on developing New Farmer curriculum for commercial producers and supporting agricultural professionals in workshop delivery. This will continue, WSARE PDP funds will be leveraged with local Extension and grant funds. Other inputs include: staff support from UOG CES & AES, DoAG, FSA, GCC culinary program, and NRCS as they collaborate in training delivery. The WSARE PDP program will support curriculum development, training in its use, maintaining demonstration sites, and assisting partner groups in delivering trainings to their client groups. The PDP program will also conduct strategic planning sessions with farmers, agricultural and market professionals, and community groups to identify new topics.
3) Delivering New and Veteran Farmer Trainings by developing curriculum and demonstrations for trainings of clients that want to begin agricultural production. Our multi-agency outreach group has identified three types of producers; subsistence/producers (those striving to reduce the family food bill and increase food diversity by gardening), market gardeners (gardeners who produce a surplus for sale as a first step to larger commercial production), and commercial producers (those who derive a significant portion of their income from agricultural production). Local support is available from Northern and Southern Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD), Farmers’ Co-Op, Guam DoAG, UOG Small Business Development Center (SBDC), DPHSS, and GCC culinary program. This core group regularly works in smaller partnerships to obtain outside funding for targeted efforts.
Due to leverage use of local funds this project was able to extend its period of work on these ongoing focus areas, to include the early COVID adaption of program focus.
Project objectives:
1) Expanded advisory group formed and initiates outreach plan and development.
2) Island Outreach professionals will utilize and adapt existing program curriculum [for producers (both traditional and non-traditional) ]and use in workshops and demonstrations on recommended practices.
3) New gardens/ plantings to be initiated giving increased production and consumption of fruits and vegetables by island families, adoption by these producers of sustainable practices taught.
4) Agriculture and non-agriculture professionals conducting workshops promoting home, school and community gardening, and commercial production efforts utilizing recommended practices. Increase in home, school, community, and commercial plantings.
Final activities under grant during 2020 - 2021 added adaptation to Pre-Post COVID environment modifications of above objectives