BFRDP Projects

Area 1: Create a national peer network that develops, provides, and facilitates access to, training, education, internships, mentorships, jobs, financial and market opportunities for beginning farmer veterans (70% of project effort). We will combine new small scale livestock production and business planning materials with existing core tools previously created through Risk Management Agency grants known as the One Page Business/Financial Plan, One Page Monthly Cash Flow Budget, and One Page Risk Management Plan. These tools will be adapted to explain small scale pork and pastured poultry production business, small scale honeybee, grass fed beef, lamb, goat and vegetable business models. 

Area 2: Provide twenty seven workshops focused on small scale livestock and vegetable production supported by on-going case management services for attendees. (30% of project effort). We will incorporate the new training materials into twenty seven workshops (at least twenty two of which will be on-farm and hosted by FVC beginning farmer veterans) that target these farmer veterans and their specific livestock, provide regional training platforms for them to gather and learn from each other, and assist them in refining their own financial, production, risk management and business plans. Additionally, all workshop attendees will receive on-going comprehensive, individualized capacity development assistance using a case management model in which individual needs, assessments, and development plans, guide the provision of subsequent services, training, referrals and linkages to resources. 

Six of the twenty seven workshops will be specifically focused on developing, supporting and educating women farmer veterans on the production, financial and risk management components of small scale livestock/vegetable operations. Additional emphasis will be placed on developing, integrating and utilizing local networking and supportive resources for women such as the FVC Veteran Peer Farmer Network.

The purpose of this project is to continue to develop and maintain the existing BFRDP Clearinghouse to help beginning farmers and ranchers be more successful. Farm Answers, the centerpiece of the Clearinghouse, will continue to assemble educational materials, online courses, software tools, project reports, and educational programs along with developing new features and resources in a single well-organized website where beginning producers and the organizations that work with them can quickly obtain the information, training, and connections that they need. 

The project will maintain and expand the online Farm Answers library that provides beginning farmers and ranchers a one-stop source of information materials and programs that will help them succeed in their chosen agricultural endeavors. It will work with BFRDP Standard and Educational Team projects to facilitate collaboration, communication and sharing of educational materials between projects to amplify the effectiveness and reach of the assistance provided to beginning farmers and ranchers. The project will also collaborate with NIFA to help BFRDP projects improve outcome-based reporting that will help BFRDP projects effectively communicate accomplishments, provide valid data for stakeholders, and the allow the public to learn more about BFRDP projects. The Clearinghouse will also assist NIFA with organization and technology for virtual and in-person conference, meetings, webinars and ongoing engagement with BFRDP projects and stakeholders.

This project is designed to assist beginning socially disadvantaged and limited resource producers (BSDLRPs) in eastern and southwest Arkansas. The goal of the project is to provide BSDLRPs with the knowledge and training needed to become successful farmers and ranchers.

The objectives are:
To provide BSDLRPs with business planning training and the use of USDA farm loans. 
To provide BSDLRPs with Extension crop and livestock production training with the use of USDA Conservation Programs.
To provide BSDLRPs with marketing education with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables.
To conduct a beginning farmers class.

This program will train BSDLRPs to use financial statements when making management decisions and profit margins when determining the economic feasibility of a business plan. BSDLRPs will also know how to apply for a USDA loan.

BSDLRPs will be taught to use the Cooperative Extension Service (CES) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to improve and increase their yields. As a result of this training, BSDLRPs will have above average yields which will increase profit margins.
Many BSDLRPs who diversify with vegetable crops failed because they lack vegetable marketing experience. BSDLRPs will be trained on early marketing, relationship marketing, and the five Ps of marketing when starting a vegetable business. 

The Beginning Farmers Class will include seven modules that provide different aspects of farming and ranching. These modules will include classroom exercises (business planning and structure, heir property), hand-on exercises (calibrations, transplanting) and much more. Graduates of the class will increase profitability in their operations.  

Our project is developed by and for beginning farmers across the state. Instead of duplicating the efforts of great organizations that are already building beginner farmer training programs, this project enriches and aligns beginning farmer training programs via common core trainings and one-on-one technical assistance customized to meet the needs of beginning farmers in Connecticut.

Core trainings for beginning farmers will emphasize: business planning, financial management and record keeping; farmland access; overcoming marketing uncertainties; and small scale production of vegetables and fruit. Programs will be offered in person, with online tutorials developed for many of the modules, including farm business planning, soil health, safe and effective use of pesticides, and marketing for success. One-on-one experts will be available for farmers that need assistance in vegetable production and pest management, farmland evaluation and conservation, and financial record-keeping.

Our partners are: Common Ground High School in New Haven, the Community Farm of Simsbury, the Green Village Initiative in Bridgeport, Killingly Agriculture Education Program, KNOX in Hartford, and WRCC-GROW Windham. Training resources will also be used to support UConn's Listo Para Inciar (or Ready-to-Start) training program, which delivers a hands-on, cohort based model of beginner farming training for Spanish-speaking urban market gardeners. 

Other key partners in the project are the New CT Farmer Alliance and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of CT. “With this investment supported through the USDA, our alliance will further increase accessibility between agricultural support services, and CT’s budding community of agricultural entrepreneurs.”said Betsy Robson, NCTFA Coordinator (a statewide network of over 200 farmers).

The long term goal of our project is for every beginning farmer in Connecticut who wishes to produce and sell food – regardless of scale, experience, or language barriers – to have access to fundamental training to start or continue farming profitably.

To increase the number and enhance the success of Native Hawaiian agroforesters in
order to grow new agroforestry projects and improve resource management of existing projects.
This project increases economic opportunity, food security and cultural connection to the forest
in the Native Hawaiian community of Maui.

Abbreviated objectives are: 1) Train 150 new and beginning Native Hawaiian farmers in
agroforestry; 2) Engage 30 new Native Hawaiian youth in agroforestry as a career path; 3)
Enhance the success of 50 beginning agroforesters; 4) Facilitate 20 new farmers in designing an
agroforestry/native reforestation project; 5) Establish a demonstration farm cultivated by 100
new Native Hawaiian farmers; 6) Provide land to 2 Native Hawaiian farmers to cultivate native
crops and enter markets; 7) Develop 10 new markets for agroforestry cultural crops.

To accomplish the goal we will conduct monthly classroom and hands-on workshops for three
years, which are culturally appropriate and targeted at Native Hawaiian adults and youth.
We will establish a new training program aimed at growing new agroforestry farmers (forest management and crop farming practices) and natural resource managers.

Based in Fairfax County, Virginia, but pulling on expertise and farms across Northern and Central Virginia and the National Capital Region, Arcadia's Veteran Farmer Program will bring together regional nonprofits, agricultural organizations, veterans, and experienced farmers - including veterans who have made a successful transition to farming - to create a multi-layered farmer training and development program to launch veterans into careers in agriculture. This thoughtful, practical program will increase the number of veteran farmers in Virginia and the number of farmers overall, and will increase the likelihood of their success by providing them with farming skills; business development and management training; and ongoing technical support. This program will also provide continued support as Trainees launch their agricultural careers with ongoing mentorships from the business, agricultural, and veteran communities. In the years beyond this project period, Arcadia's Veteran Farmer Program will provide program participants, and graduates, ongoing assistance with identification and acquisition of land and assured albeit optional wholesale market opportunities.

The goal of Arcadia's Veteran Farmer Program is to increase the number of military veterans operating new, successful farm operations in the Washington, D.C. region. Our program will focus on current military members and veterans of the armed forces with a 10-year goal to offer training to 150 potential veteran farmers via our two training tracks (combined), with the intention of producing 50 new farmers operating businesses within 125 miles of Washington D.C.

The purpose of this project is to continue to develop and maintain Farm Answers, the existing BFRDP Clearinghouse to help beginning farmers and ranchers be more successful. Farm Answers will continue to assemble educational materials, online courses, software tools, project reports, and educational programs along with developing new features and resources in a single well-organized website where beginning producers and the organizations that work with them can quickly obtain the information, training, and connections that they need.

Overall Goals

1. Maintain and expand the online Farm Answers library that provides beginning farmers and ranchers a one-stop source of information materials and programs that will help them succeed in their chosen agricultural endeavors.
2. Work with BFRDP Standard and Educational Team projects to facilitate collaboration, communication and sharing of educational materials between projects to amplify the effectiveness and reach of the assistance provided to beginning farmers and ranchers.
3. Collaborate with NIFA to help BFRDP projects improve outcome-based reporting that will help BFRDP projects effectively communicate accomplishments, provide valid data for stakeholders, and the allow the public to learn more about BFRDP projects.

This project will develop a Clearinghouse that will help beginning farmers and ranchers be more successful. The Clearinghouse will assemble educational materials, online courses, software tools, stories, and the ability to connect online into a well-organized website where beginning producers can quickly obtain the information, training, and connections they need. It will:

1. Help individuals and families exploring, beginning, establishing, and managing farms or ranches quickly and easily access the information and training they need.
2. Support BFRDP programs by facilitating sharing, collaboration, and communication and by providing programs better access to educational materials.
3. Help BFRDP projects better disseminate their educational materials so they can reach more beginning farmers and ranchers.
4. Enhance focus on outcomes by assisting BFRDP projects improve outcome-based reporting.

The Clearinghouse will offer multiple means to help beginning farmers and ranchers learn, including the ability; to find materials on topics of importance to them, to ask questions of other producers, to learn from online videos and courses, to find BFRDP programs in their geographic region, and to read stories about other beginning producers. They will be able to choose the method to find answers, ideas, and information that works best for them.

This project builds on our successful partnership, established in 2015, to offer a comprehensive program of training, support, and land access for beginning WNC farmers and ranchers, through whole-farm production and business education, farmland linking, and land trust services. The Farm Pathways team includes the Organic Growers School (OGS), Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC), and NC FarmLink (NCFL, a program of NCSU Extension).

Collectively we will provide these additional services for beginning farmers to expand our audience and partnership: 1) Build resilient farm businesses with targeted training, technical assistance, and mentoring for beginning farmers. 2) Prioritize land access and farm transition, and support strategies for successful beginning farmer land tenure. 3) Expand, enhance, update, and deliver Farm Pathways Beginning Farmer Programs to a wider audience; including more rural farmers, veterans, limited resource and socially disadvantaged farmers. 4) Facilitate Farm Pathways program replication to other areas of the country by designing, streamlining, administering, and distributing collective evaluations and measurable reports.

We will offer the following programs to provide a trajectory of support: 1) OGS offers Farm Beginnings® Farmer Training, a year-long comprehensive program to promote holistic, practical, whole-farm business, financial, and marketing education; Mentoring and Technical Assistance to provide long-term, targeted, and individualized support; a new Journeyperson: A Farmer Education Program for farmers in years 3-10 designed to serve the beginning farmer from start-up to establishment. 2) SAHC provides their Farmer Incubator Program which offers land, infrastructure, and equipment along with support, training, and coaching for beginning farmers; The Farm Production Workshops Series; and Agricultural Conservation Easements and Farmland Acquisition services which assure long-term availability of affordable farmland for beginning farmers. 3) NCFL contributes Land Matching Services, which link beginning farmers with farmland owners; One-on-one consultations for both landowners and farm seekers, including succession planning support.

GROW Louisiana is training program for beginning horticulture farmers on small to mid-size family farms in Louisiana with less than 10 years of experience.  Specifically, the program seeks to assist farmers interested in engaging in sustainable agricultural practices and local food systems via a mixed methods approach of academic training, hands-on application, and farmer networking.  Led by the LSU AgCenter, Grow Louisiana is a partnership of academic, cooperative extension and non-profit personnel with an interest in supporting a more sustainable local food system.

Mission: To increase the diversity of Louisiana agriculture by increasing the number of fruit and vegetable producers and the variety of commodities available in local markets.

Vision:  To serve as a sustainable state-wide agricultural education program, resource, and support for beginning horticulture farmers in Louisiana that provides technical, business, and hands-on training opportunities.

The GROW model offers beginning farmers training in whole-farm planning, including business and technical production management, resources, support, and mentoring based on the following principles:

• Grow Sustainably:  Grow Louisiana not only trains farmers to use sustainable agricultural practices, but also provides training to farmers in sustainable business practices for long-term success.
• Resource Optimization:  Grow Louisiana prepares farmers to make use of available resources to support their needs in order to achieve established goals.
• Objective Decision Making:   Grow Louisiana trains farmers to make decision based on objective information, which is fact-based, measurable and observable.
• Work Efficiently:  Grow Louisiana trains farmers to use efficient production and business practices that allow them to attain the highest returns on investment, effort, and production.

Our program creates a positive ecosystem promoting professional and financial growth for beginning farmers in the Atlanta region through an agricultural incubator immersion program. The 20 beginner farmers per year includes veterans, socially disadvantaged, limited resource, or farmworkers, including women, African-Americans, Latinx, Asian, and LGBTQ farmers, with at least 60% of the budget going to serve these groups. Training includes the hands-on application of knowledge as they learn and work on the farm weekly and all participants will receive training through the University of Georgia. Raising and marketing microgreens and exotic crops will also be explored. Upon graduation, farmers will receive a stipend to help pay for their start-up costs.
The program consists of teaching beginners how to farm, entrepreneurship/business development, and light farm construction. We will also train them in SPIN (Small Plot INtensive) farming techniques and data analysis to minimize costs/risks and maximize net income. At the end of the program the goal is for these beginners to have gained farming and business skills that will afford them the knowledge base to be able to start their own lucrative farm businesses and/or work on a farm for another business in their community. The Generation Infocus Foundation is applying for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program
(BFRDP) as a non-profit NGO with multiple partners, including the Fulton County Cooperative Extension at the University of Georgia and Ray of Life Farms. GI Foundation will be responsible for receiving and distributing 100% of the grant funding.

Hawaii imports 85-90% of its food, making it highly vulnerable to disruptions in food supply. The state’s transition over the last 200 years from a highly diversified indigenous agricultural system to plantation-scale industrial export crops, which have now ceased production, has created an urgent need for revitalization of the agricultural economy. Hawaii has 7,328 farms, but 78% earn less than $25,000 per year. Costs of land, labor, and agricultural inputs are high, and the average farmer age is 60 years old. Hawaii’s governor established a goal to double local food production by 2030, which requires a significant expansion of farms and production volumes. In addition, local farmers need support to meet the challenges presented by climate change. 

The goal of the GoFarm Hawaii (GFH) project is to enhance Hawaii’s food system resilience by increasing the number of viable farm businesses in the state and the volume of food production. This project develops new farmers through 1) a certificate-based farmer training program that integrates conceptual and experiential learning, 2) 1-on-1 business consulting and technical support, and 3) ongoing production, business, and networking support. The program components have been developed and customized based on the unique needs of the local beginning farmer population, who typically have limited experience and exposure to agriculture, and want preparation to operate their own farm businesses. 

This project will provide beginning farmers with the knowledge and skills to access land and local markets. Land and market access remain two of the most important barriers to beginning farmers' success. This project will provide innovative farmland transfer strategies, entrepreneurship training, marketing strategies, and peer mentoring to enable beginning farmers to develop markets that cover their costs of production and to transition from informal, short-term land access to long-term predictable land tenure.

This project will serve Maryland beginning farmers, particularly urban farmers in Baltimore and peri-urban farmers in the MD counties surrounding Washington, DC. 

Urban and peri-urban farmers have market opportunities due to their proximity to population centers, but often struggle to find the right mix of market outlets to balance providing affordable food for their neighbors with achieving financial sustainability. These specific opportunities and challenges will be addressed by developing market research case-studies for urban and peri-urban farms and by providing research-based education on how to grow and market African heritage crops.

Urban and peri-urban farmers also face unique land tenure challenges, competing with developers for land and navigating municipal processes. These situations arise through the best of intentions, as municipalities work toward sometimes competing aims of improving green space and food access while also planning developments to increase affordable housing and increase the city’s tax base. Solutions to such complex problems require community-led conversations and consensus building about land use planning priorities. The proposed project engages two farmer-and-community-led Baltimore non-profits, who will bring community-members, farmers, decision-makers, and other stakeholders together to work towards the community-identified goal of each neighborhood in Baltimore having access to arable land to be used for local priorities. This systems-change work will be supported by technical and educational resources from the university partners. 

UConn Extension with its partners and collaborators will implement a robust suite of training opportunities for Connecticut's beginning farmers, including business and financial training, one-on-one business technical assistance, cohort trainings in production and agriculture mechanics, farmer-to-farmer events that build strong peer networks, and enhanced services to help BF search for farmland. All project activities will be delivered through UConn Extension's Solid Ground Farmer Training Program. First, we aim to improve business and financial management skills of beginning farmers. We will accomplish this through the delivery of essential new training and TA in farm business basics targeted for Category 2 beginning farmers, and high impact trainings to help farm business owners improve their farm management skills and profitability targeting Category 3 & 4 beginning farmers. Second, we will accelerate beginner farmer skills using the latest production systems and equipment by creating access to talented, knowledgeable experts and peer farmers. We will accomplish this through hands-on and in-the-field training to increase production skills and self-reliance, as well as unique learning events with structures that build peer-to-peer social networks, all targeting Category 2 & 3 beginning farmers. Finally, we will address farmland access needs by increasing the likelihood of finding suitable farmland through farmland matching events and one-on-one farmland consulting. The expected number of beginning farmers who will improve their farming success is 500: by making beneficial changes to their business & financial systems (150); by applying new production skills and knowledge (250); by building stronger peer-networks (60); and by accessing stable land tenure (40).

The overarching goal of the Chesapeake Grows: A Regional Approach to New Farmer Success project is to launch a cross-cutting pilot program aimed at growing and diversifying the new farmer pipeline across the Chesapeake region and to improve new operations' long-term viability. This project is a one-year pilot (2019-20) that will enable our collaborative of 7 partners to trial, evaluate, and refine new region-wide programming and networking opportunities for beginning farmers. We will do so by:

1) building upon the strong farmer training work that has been established in Maryland and creating a new regional training network across the Chesapeake; 2) providing accessible, multi-modal training to increase the number of new farmers, especially socially disadvantaged farmers; and 3) strengthening support for beginning farmers who own/manage a farm, improving their financial literacy and record keeping, helping them establish financial benchmarks, and building new peer networks to hedge against burnout and isolation.

Over the past three years, through a 2016-19 grant, we dramatically increased the scope and reach of new farmer training across Maryland, reaching more than 6,000 farmers through a Beginner Farmer Training Program, field days, classes, and conferences; our online content has reached tens of thousands more. We seek now to leverage and expand upon the robust infrastructure of farmer training we have built in Maryland to reach new farmers across MD, VA, DC, WV, and DE. Beyond expanding our geographic reach, we will also refine and expand support for beginning farmers at the more advanced end of the spectrum. Driven by farmer feedback from the past three years, we will increase educational programming for this subset of beginning farmers and introduce new, region-wide farmer study circles. Both will focus on record keeping and financial benchmarking.

The long-term goal of this one year Development project is to build the agricultural capacity among beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers in Massachusetts to operate their own independent farming enterprises, to increase farmer ownership rates, and to build environmental stewardship. The Flats Mentor Farm (FMF) is a program of World Farmers (WF) which provides land and agriculture production infrastructure for beginning farmers while they evaluate the sustainability of farming as a way of life for themselves and their families.

This one year development project proposal will achieve the following objectives: 1) Provide technical assistance to beginning farmers according to their level of capacity in the three phases of the Flats Mentoring Program; 2) Provide tools and develop skills on financial and risk management; 3) Increase beginning farmer participation in USDA programs. In the area of training and technical assistance, this project will address the immediate needs identified by the immigrant and refugee farmer participants at FMF to better understand the complexities of farming in New England: crop production practices, entrepreneurship and business training, financial and risk management, marketing strategies, food safety practices and outreach to USDA programs.

The Center of Southwest Culture's Cooperative Center (CODECE) project seeks $100,000 in USDA funding to provide technical assistance to underserved communities--specifically for Indigenous communities--to form two new farming cooperatives. The cooperatives will not only be sustainable over the long-run, but they will also serve as a community-wide collective investments that will provide members with meaningful returns to help augment their existing incomes.

CODECE targets underserved Native American communities who are threatened by poverty and lack of economic opportunity, but have access to arable land and water rights. CODECE will form cooperatives with an emphasis on members having a relationship based on kinship.

Forming organic farming cooperatives is an effective way for beginning farmers to efficiently leverage resources and increase profitability. Several successful 'buy local' campaigns such as Farm-to-Table and Farm-to-Restaurant have created a situation where the demand for local and organic produce far outstrips the current supply. If the farmers begin to grow organic produce, they will produce crops that are overall more profitable and in higher demand. 

The funds will be used to conduct the following activities: guide members in the production of more profitable crops like organic fruits and vegetables; implement production and management strategies to enhance land stewardship among these farmers; provide hands-on technical assistance in incorporation, by-laws and articles of incorporation; provide basic business training in budgets, taxes and other business-related activities; provide farm plans, including sequential planting, crop rotations, crop selection for optimum market share; provide access to investment capital; connect members to organic food markets; and develop a long-term professional relationship with these new cooperatives to ensure their longevity and viability. We expect to incorporate two farming cooperatives during the life of the grant. In addition, the project will create 10 new jobs.

The Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust’s Indigenous Roots Forever: A Business Support Program for Tribal and other Black, Indigenous People of Color Beginning Farmers is a one-year collaborative program executed under the USDA-BFRDP FY2021-2022 Simplified Standard Grants initiative. 

This project will be implemented from 10/1/2021 - 9/30/2022 by the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT) located in Rhode Island. To effectively execute this project, PPLT will collaborate with Global Village Farms and Nichols College in Massachusetts. With these partnerships, support for and outreach to historically underserved Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) beginning farmers is ensured.

The methodology of this project is to utilize outreach and individualized educational services as well as intensive learning and technical assistance to increase understanding of sound business practices among BIPOC farmers. This project will foster collaboration and knowledge exchange for, with, and among historically underserved peoples in Massachusetts. This work is greatly needed as educational resources for beginning farmers in this region is startlingly low. 

For the past 25 years, the Sustainable Farming Association (SFA) has helped to develop beginning farmers. During that time, SFA has learned a great deal about what makes for success in beginning farming operations. As we review the past 25 years of work in new farmer development, we see 2 closely connected disturbing trends in agriculture today: 1) many beginning farmers lack the support, skills and savvy to successfully launch and sustain farm businesses for more than 5 years; and 2) as a result, there is a constant cycle of new farmers entering the market but never realizing their full potential. This trend is leading to
fragmented rural communities and over-worked and underpaid farmers who rarely overcome the mechanical solidarity issues and have a successful rural life.

"Deep Roots: Thoughtful, Comprehensive, Community-Based Beginning Farmer Training" takes a proven beginning farmer training model, increases its appeal and functionality by adding an online component and places beginning farmer training in the context of a 25 year old Farmer-to-Farmer Network.

Deep Roots is designed for individuals who want to work in sustainable farming as independent producers. Typically, sustainable agriculture programs attract nontraditional audiences including women, older students, underrepresented minorities and new American populations. These programs are also suitable for individuals with a conventional farming background who want to transition toward sustainability as well as for individuals who want to farm but have no family background or directexperience in the field.

Alabama A&M University (AAMU) is an 1890 and historically black land-grant institution with a rich history and experience of providing education, outreach training and technical assistance to rural residents. This project will recruit, grow, and support the next generation of minority beginning farmers and assist them overcome the many challenges they face to succeed in farming. AAMU is partnering with Alabama State Association of Cooperatives, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Alabama Agricultural A+ Marketing Association, Holistic Management International, Alchemy Farms and Plants, and other local organizations to develop comprehensive experience-based curricula anchored by experience-based whole farm planning and mentoring programs. The project targets and engages veterans, socially disadvantaged beginning farmers (SDBFRs), disconnected youth, students, and those who choose to advance farming opportunities. Thirty-five percent of the funding is allocated to partner organizations, 13% to assisting military veterans, and 86% to supporting SDBFRs. By partnering with demonstration farms throughout Alabama, this project will provide year-long programs of classroom and hands-on in-field instruction and demonstrations on essential skills and information to empower SDBFRs with the knowledge and mentoring support to be successful farmers. Over three years, the project will train over 100 farm mentors, support and assist at least 765 SDBFRs and veterans, and reach over 3,300 additional minority or socially disadvantaged individuals through general outreach and effective information dissemination strategies. The project builds on prior BFRDP funding (Awards #2012-49400-19567 and #2017-70017-26842); and based on the strong partnerships forged, online resources, farm mentors, stakeholders’ and target audience support, and the proposed experience-based training and mentorship programing, this project will likely be self-sustaining.

This project will provide resources to develop the Center for Farm and Ranch Transition within the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University to provide critical services for beginning farmers/ranchers in Kansas.  The Center will have three main objectives during the three years of this grant: 1) Development of a land-link program to match exiting landowners with beginning farmers/ranchers through an application and curated matching process 2) Provide one-on-one technical services to facilitate transition of an existing farm/ranch operation 3) Develop an extensive training program for beginning farmers/ranchers to master critical financial and business skills.
The goal of this project is to equip beginning farmers/ranchers to be successful farm managers and provide resources and technical services to enable opportunities for land access. It is anticipated that the land-link program will bring at least 30 successful matches during the life of this grant.  In addition, 60 farm families will receive one-on-one technical assistance in developing their transition plan with 40 completing their transition within the three years.  Educational conferences on farm transition will reach 300 participants and 60 beginning farmers/ranchers will complete a year-long training and have measurable increases in farm financial knowledge and business skills.  The Center for Farm and Ranch Transition will continue offering these services beyond the grant period with many more transitions anticipated as a direct result of these start-up funds. Long-term outcomes would be increasing the number of beginning farmers/ranchers in Kansas agriculture and slowing the consolidation of farms/ranches across the state.

Partnering organizations: Kansas Department of Agriculture, Kansas Bankers Association, Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Livestock Association, Kansas Farm Service Agency, Kansas Natural Resource Conservation Service, and Kansas Grazing Land Coalition.

10% of budget to exclusively serve socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers

50% of budget to overcome COVID-19 challenges (technical services and educational programs)

The Farm Collaborative, in partnership with Western Colorado farmers and technical service providers, will launch a reimagined Western Colorado-based farmer education program focused on aggregating and deploying in-person and web-based resources and trainings to beginning and under-resourced farmers in order to provide them with the fundamental skills needed for long-term farm success and viability.

Our program will serve beginning farmers at all levels of experience. Over three years, we will 1) run a heavily evaluated version of our current, unstructured Apprenticeship Program; 2) run two cohorts of beginning farmers with 1-3 years of experience through the pilot apprenticeship training program, 3) link farmers with trainings on finances, marketing, and land access, and 4) provide more experienced beginning farmers with 3-5 and 5+ years of experience an opportunity for growth and expansion of their business via opportunities for 0% loans, financing, guaranteed product purchases, and housing. Farmers with no experience (as well as those at all other levels) will engage with the programming through field days hosted by other farmers and a web-based hub of resources tailored for Western Colorado farmers, with bilingual materials developed in conjunction with Latinx farmers from our region. At the project’s conclusion, we will have a robust “Ecosystem,” wherein would-be, beginning, and under-resourced farmers are educated on the fundamental skills of farming as well as connected with the region’s multitude of farm service organizations and opportunities, as well as each other.

Elevating the Quality of Beginning Farmer Training in Michigan award is a 3 year project funded by USDA Beginning Farmer Rancher Grant (2021-2024) with the goal to develop curricula around key farmer-identified topics for beginning farmer educational programs following an interactive co-learning model. These curricula will provide a platform to conduct training of trainers (beginning farmer trainers) to demonstrate the use of the curricula in a participatory learning environment. Curricula is being co-created by extension professionals and beginning farmer educators from across the state, complimented by beginning farmers' reviews of the materials and experiential learning approaches. Once these curricula are completed (year 2) we will trial them with beginning farmer educators and beginning farmers to identify satisfaction, appropriateness for different levels of beginning farmers and noting where modifications are needed.

Evaluations are begin conducted throughout this project to identify clarification of the audiences' needs and preferences of the curricula content, delivery approaches, and beginning farmer educators' capacity to implement these curricula using this style. Results of the evaluations will direct us to points for corrections at each of these phases and identify the educators' and farmers' acquisitions gained with these resources and implementations. Near the conclusion of this grant period the evaluators will assess changes in teaching style by the educators and ease of implementation of the technical information by the beginning farmers who use these materials and those that participate in educational programs that follow this curriculum format.

The team's overall goal is to provide science-based curricula that promotes learners' engagement through guidance, experiential learning and mentorship opportunities. The final product will offer curricula on 7 farmer-identified production related topics: soil health, market establishment, food safety, integrated pest management, financial management, land access, and urban policy. In addition, 2 curricula are being developed for educators or farmer leaders; engaging diverse communities and developing mentorship programs (farmer guilds and farmer mentors). A unique aspect of this work is the ability for beginning farmer groups to embed content developed by this team directly into their own WEB site rather than relying on link-directed resources.  For the non-internet audiences, thumb drives and printed copies will be distributed of the content.

The long-term goal of PFC’s BFRDP project is to empower refugee, immigrant, and Black beginning farmers with needed resources, knowledge, skills, and opportunities to enter and continuously improve their successes in farming by refining PFC’s beginning farmer training initiatives in collaboration with Cornell partners. According to feedback and a survey, the most common methods for effective learning identified by refugee, immigrant, and Black beginning farmers are personalized, hands-on, and language-adaptive demonstration in the field and teaching in the classroom, plus the use of visual resources. Farmers expressed needing to learn about livestock and crop farming plus farm business and financial management. These farmers prioritize building inter- and intra-community relationships plus earning income through farming. Included in their definitions of success for their farms are being able to feed their communities and connect with their culture. Thus, our primary objectives are to a) increase PFC staff knowledge and capacity so staff can better meet the expressed learning needs of refugee, immigrant, and Black farmers and b) empower such farmers to enter or improve their successes in farming through access to land, personalized education, and market opportunities while building community, nourishing their communities, and connecting with their culture.

To accomplish its long-term goal, the project will employ methods in which farmers are supported in creating annual individualized education plans and partners at Cornell train PFC staff on topic basics. Through farmers’ education plans and increased staff knowledge and capacity, PFC staff will better provide basic personalized education and mentorship to farmers that is hands-on, language-adapted, and one-on-one or small-group. Partners will likewise reference farmers’ education plans to deliver advanced instruction and technical assistance, as well as support curricula refinement and production of visual learning materials. PFC farmland and relationships with markets serving low-income, low-access communities will be leveraged throughout the program. In total, 200 under-resourced farmers will be served and four staff members will be trained.    

Enhancing Beginning Farmers Agritourism Operations in New York State focuses around
educating beginning farmers on the many sectors of agritourism. Operating an agritourism
operation can be very cumbersome since many different sectors fall under agritourism including
production, financial, customers services, legal, insurance, food safety, value added products,
zoning, events, and more. Operating an agritourism operation allows for farmers to diversify their
farm and increase revenue.

This project focuses on many opportunities to educator beginning farmers on the many sectors of
agritourism including newly created online webinars, educational materials, and opportunities to
network with other beginning farmers, experienced farmers, and tourism partners. Beginning
farmers will gain knowledge and implement practices learned from the educational opportunities.

The target audience is beginning farmers with less than 10 years of experience farming. The many
sectors that fall under agritourism compliment the priority areas of BFRDP which we will focus on
during online webinars, supplemental educational materials, networking opportunities, and
statewide conference: Entrepreneurship and business training; Financial and risk management
training, including the acquisition and management of agricultural credit; Diversification and
marketing strategies; Curriculum development, and Food safety and recordkeeping.

As interest in new farmer training continues to grow across the country, and more new farmer training projects launch every year, it is imperative that we better understand how to design the most effective and successful new farmer training programs, as well as demonstrate the impacts federal investment have on growing the next generation of farmers. 

Since the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) was first created in 2008, over $100 million has been invested to support over 200 new farmer training projects impacting farmers in every state across the country.  And while each project is required to track and report outcomes and impacts, to date, no national-level analysis has ever been completed of BFRDP as a whole.  Our project seeks to conduct the first ever comprehensive evaluation of BFRDP funded projects by analyzing qualitative and quantitative data from project reports, conducting additional evaluation activities as needed, and assessing the long-term impacts of completed projects for which data has not yet been collected.  With this project, we seek to better understand both the short and long-term outcomes and impacts of BFRDP as a whole, and to better understand the factors that lead to more successful new farmer training projects.

In the "Expanding Integrated Solutions to Achieve Farmland Access for New Farmers" project, Jan Joannides, Executive Director of Renewing the Countryside with Co-PDs Lori Stern, Executive Director, Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service and Greg Padget, Next Generation Director, Practical Farmers of Iowa along with partners in Illinois will expand the services and network of the Farmland Access Hub to assist beginning farmers and ranchers (BFRs) in obtaining secure access to land in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.

We will: 1) Help BFRs become prepared to seek land; 2). Assist BFRs in obtaining improved leases or purchasing land; 3). Work with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) BFRs to reach these same goals; 4). Grow the network of Farmland Navigators and Support Service Providers (SSPs) to support the work; 5). Create a thriving network of 70 Hub Partners to integrate our work and sustain longevity.

We expect 96 BFs will purchase farmland or obtain favorable lease or use agreements. An additional 120, BFRs,will make progress towards accessing farmland. 11 Navigators will guide BFRs to specialized expertise from 30 SSPs. A Farmland Summit will strengthen partnerships, build strategies, and heighten awareness of BFR farmland access issues and opportunities.
Development of a business model and revenue plan will support long lasting impact. Dozens of project Partners will support the project. Listed: (https://www.renewingthecountryside.org/farmlandaccesshubPartners)
100% of the funds requested are allocated to nongovernmental organizations. PD Joannides has one prior award, Integrated Solutions to Achieve Farmland Access for New Farmers, 2017-70017-26882 (http://bfrdp.farmanswers.org/ProjectReport?ID=6e5b2724-a271-4147-86fd-ee55f47cbc71)

The overall goal of the proposed Farm Management Educational Program (FMEP) is to recruit, train and equip 300 new, beginning farmers and ranchers (BFRs) with the tools and resources necessary to generate and implement a feasible farm plan, becoming sustainable in vegetable and meat goat production. The objectives are to provide educational training and hands-on demonstration in basic crop and livestock production; financial management and risks mitigation; market diversification and risks mitigation; food safety and biosecurity; and programs and services of the current farm bill. 

In year one, 300 participants will learn the fundamentals of farming. In year two, approximately 50% of the participants from year 1 will develop farm plans for their prospective enterprises. In year three, participants with developed plans will have an opportunity to implement them, utilizing accessible resources. The outputs for this project include farm management tools necessary for viability. The outcomes will enhance the capacity of new farmers and ranchers to implement a realistic farm plan, market a quality product, explore the many beneficial opportunities in the farm bill, and have a more productive workforce.

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) include: Alliance of Sustainable Farms, Mid-South Progressive Agriculture Group, Mileston Cooperative Association, Mississippi Meat Goat Producers Cooperative, and National Center for Appropriate Technology. Twenty-five percent (25%) of total federal funds requested will be allocated to these NGOs.  100% of the budget will be allocated to assisting new, beginning farmers and ranchers (including retired and disabled military veterans); socially-disadvantage producers who are African-American and women.

The proposed project will utilize the business incubator model for agricultural production and marketing demonstrations targeting new and beginning farmers. The incubator will be an intensive, hands-on approach working with a small group of new and beginning farmers to establish core business plans and practices that will enable them to facilitate successful Farm to School business ventures. Holmes County Food Hub will provide the technical training and support in enterprise production, marketing and business development in coordination with various resource providers including local extension and USDA agencies. This training and assistance in market development, value-added production and distribution will enable participants to obtain "real-word, hands-on experiences.

The Farm to School Academy Demonstration/Training Site will be also used to demonstrate and evaluate various alternative enterprises, production management practices and markets development models. A five to twenty acre production site will be established to demonstrate select economically viable and sustainable crop enterprises for the Farm to School market. Workshops and field days will be conducted to demonstrate the viability of viability of Farm to School market opportunities. On-site enterprise production and market demonstrations will be complemented with business management seminars and market demonstrations will be complemented with business management seminars and workshops related to those enterprises and markets. The training activities are designed to enhance capacity in agricultural entrepreneurship.

The long-term goal of this three year Collaborative project is to increase the agricultural production capacity of beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers via farmer-to-farmer mentoring, training and technical assistance on all aspects of crop production and marketing  necessary to operate successful sustainable farming enterprises, increase farm ownership rates, and promote environmental stewardship. The target audience for this project is the over 250+ beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers who farm at the Flats Mentor Farm in Lancaster MA.

The re-submission of this STANDARD three-year collaborative project proposal will partner with these institutions: UMass Extension. Growing Places, Nashoba Regional High School, the Lancaster Ag Commission, the Lancaster Community Center, and Rural Coalition to achieve the following objectives: 1) Provide technical assistance to beginning farmers according to their level of capacity in the three phases of the Flats Mentoring Program; 2) Develop food safety certification program; 3) Cultivate innovative marketing strategies; 4) Provide tools and develop skills on financial and risk management; 5) Expand the Farmer-to-Farmer Flats Mentoring model to include a pre-Phase #1 assessment component and embrace the energy of our youth at the high school to assist farmers at the farmers markets. 6) Increase beginning farmer participation in USDA programs.  

World Farmers (WF) will allocate 26% of the budget to the collaborating institutions as follows: UMass Amherst (8%), Growing Places (8%) Lancaster senior center (1.2%), Lancaster agricultural commission (1%), Nashoba Regional School (6%), Rural coalition (2%). In addition, other federal offices and private firms have expressed their interest in supporting this collaborative project.

The Greening of Detroit (The Greening) and Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN) collaborated on the Farming Detroit project. This program is aimed at increasing the number of limited-resource beginning farmers with access to training, education, and mentoring opportunities, in order to address the specific needs of urban growers and ultimately to increase the number of farmers within Detroit.

The project serves limited-resource beginning farmers that are socially disadvantaged, often facing multiple barriers to developing economic self-sustainability. This program provides apprentices an opportunity to develop skills and networks necessary for them to plan and develop the next steps required to further the success of their start-up farming operations. The program also formalizes a partnership between The Greening and DBCFSN that improves and standardizes training curriculum, while capitalizing on each partner's strengths and ability to expose participants to additional resources such as shared farm sites, teachers, and equipment. By leveraging the capacity of this partnership, the project maximizes the use of expertise and best practices learned by each organization in previous years, provides for more efficient use of financial, human and material resources, and allows for greater efficiency of administrative staff costs.

The Erie, Pennsylvania field office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants will establish the Landing Ground program, to extend the agency’s Flagship Farms commercial agriculture training, with linguistically and culturally competent land-buyers education and technical assistance for up to 45 refugee and immigrant farmer trainees in three cohorts of 15 over three years. 

Landing Ground will equip participants with financial knowledge to acquire farmland, and make connections between “aspiring and retiring” farmers. Landing Ground will position new farmers for long-term success resulting in farm start-ups that strengthen the local food system through diversity and land preservation.

The main program elements combine classroom and experiential learning, featuring:
Farm field trip series and cultural exchange with local farmers to investigate different types of agricultural production in Northwestern Pennsylvania.

Property prospecting series to see farms or vacant land for sale or lease in a variety of settings
First Time Farm Buyers class featuring experts from banking / agricultural loans, real estate, environmental assessment, equipment acquisition, and financial planning to provide technical assistance so that program participants can plan for and succeed at their goals for property acquisition.

All programming will be supported by foreign language interpreters and a strong cadre of partners including the Erie County Conservation District, Erie County Department of Planning and Community Development, First National Bank, the Food Policy Advisory Council, RE/MAX Realty, and Gannon University for third-party program evaluation.

In alignment with the BFRDP primary goal, this program takes a multi-state, client centric approach to bolstering rural jobs and supporting economic growth and development by empowering and training veterans and socially-disadvantaged, majority African-American, new and beginning farmers and ranchers in poverty-stricken, rural counties and parishes: Winston, Wayne, Scott, Covington counties of Mississippi and Tangipahoa Parish and St. Helena Parish of Louisiana. Delivering thorough and hands-on training, specialized mentoring, one-on-one technical assistance and establishing an apprenticeship program will help establish and enhance their successes in farming, ranching, and management of their private forest lands to enhance their overall sustainability. For this reason, our project priorities are identical to the Legislative Priorities, as demonstrated by our four objectives:

1. Assist target audience launch farm business with business plan writing and market training- prioritizing entrepreneurship, business training, financial and risk management and marketing strategies;
2. Provide high-growth industry training and technical assistance- prioritizing basic livestock, forest management, crop farming practices and innovative strategies, like Agroforestry;
3. Offer Good Agricultural Practices and Good Handling Practices certification training- prioritizing diversification and marketing strategies as well as food safety;
4. Create a year-long apprenticeship program for young adults, ages 18-21, in order to establish a career pathway for young farmers and ranchers to own farm businesses and prioritize mentoring and vocational training.

Ultimately, the project thrives to achieve the following long-term goals: Low-income veteran, SD farmers and ranchers in rural MS and LA

1. Commonly and successfully yield quality products and produce, employ business and marketing strategies, and increase their income in their farm business to guarantee more economic stability and sustainability for themselves and their families;
2. Poses the skills and confidence to access local, state, and federal resources to achieve success and sustainability of their farm businesses; and
3. A system is established to ensure youth have the opportunity to prosper in their farm business.

As a coalition, the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC)—an academic research institution on the forefront of some of the most important research happening across the country and the world, BioGen Ag Systems—a small agricultural machinery and equipment manufacturer located in greater Kansas City, and the Veterans Community Project (VCP)—a non-profit organization focused on ending military veteran homelessness, propose the creation of a sustainable beginning farmer program with specific focus on the military veteran population in Kansas City. While the majority of beginning farmer programs focus on rural farming practices, our proposed effort is focused on urban agriculture solutions as most homeless military veterans live in urban areas.

Our project has three main objectives: (1) Recruit and retain 50 military veteran beginning farmers (MVBF); (2) Transition at least 50% of MVBF to agricultural or farm-STEM part- or full-time employment opportunities; and (3) Develop a veteran, urban, organic, and sustainable-focused pilot program that can be replicated at future VCP site locations by guaranteeing a market for specialty crops.

Our coalition will focus on supporting MVBF through employment, education, and entrepreneurship initiatives. Utilizing three, 20-foot independent model container farms at the VCP Village, military veterans will be recruited, selected, and trained on container farm processes, hydroponic systems, technological innovations for increased specialty crop production (farm-STEM training), as well as receive financial, marketing, and entrepreneurship certificate training. Our overarching coalition goal is establish a pathway to economic viability and independence for MVBF through this pilot program.

This project will provide outreach, training, technical assistance, and
mentorship to Hispanic and Veteran Beginning Farmers and Ranchers (BFRs)
in a 44-county border region of Texas and Southern New Mexico. 30% of
federal funds requested are allocated to NGOs and a CBO. 70% of project
funds are allocated to serving Hispanic BFRs; 30% to Veterans; 100% is
allocated to Limited Resource BFRs; and 20% to farm workers. This
project's service area has the highest numbers and greatest
concentrations of Hispanic farmers in the U.S. Strategic sub-award
partners include; Texas/Mexico Border Coalition CBO, La Semilla
FoodCenter, and National Center for Appropriate Technology. Additional
partners include an innovative partner with SCORE Chapters, as initiated
by the Secretary of Agriculture. Partners supporting farm-and-ranch
entrepreneurship include Small Business Development Centers, Veterans Business Outreach Center, and the Texas Rural Cooperative Center.This project is very relevant to the
primary goal of BFRDP: it will train, assist, and mentor
Limited-Resource Hispanic and Veteran BFRs to enter, and improve their
success, in farming and ranching.

Located 2,200 miles from the continental U.S., Hawaii imports about 85-90% of its food,
making it particularly vulnerable to disruptions in food supply. The state struggles with an aging
farmer population (avg. 60 years old), lack of farm labor, and declining numbers of sustainable
farmers. To address these critical issues, Hawaii’s Governor established a goal to double local
food production by 2030.

The goal of the project is to reduce Hawaii’s dependence on imported food and increase the
state’s food sustainability. This will be accomplished by developing and supporting farmers and
individuals who want to establish a business in the agricultural industry. This project will
develop new farmers (including at least 65% from socially disadvantaged groups (ethnic
minorities or women) through 1) a certificate-based farmer training program that integrates
formal classroom and experiential lessons, 2) 1-on-1 business consulting and technical support,
and 3) ongoing production, business, and networking support. Incorporating these components
will increase the likelihood of success for the state’s new and beginning farmers.

Over the past 3 years, 45% of participants (most of whom began with no farming experiences
or connections) have started commercial farming operations. An additional 17% have found
employment in the agricultural industry. And 14% plan to use their knowledge to establish a
farm in the future. GoFarm Hawaii seeks USDA support to continue its success, develop
beginning farmer industry leaders, provide various workshops to support beginning farmers, and support the local women farmers network.

     Military veterans have made great sacrifices and need our support in transitioning to civilian life upon completion of their duty.  At the same time, more farmers are needed in the U.S., especially with a focus on ecological production.  Farming can offer a meaningful livelihoods to veterans.  Community-based food systems can help connect veterans with their communities and also help ensure that consumers have equitable access to healthy local food.
     Appalachian State University is leading a project, Going Whole Hog: Sustainable Livestock and Agroforestry Training for Military Veterans, to help military veterans and other beginning farmers enter farming and farm sustainably.

Our objectives include
- Develop website, training modules, and interactive material on sustainable agriculture.  We focus on regenerative livestock production, particularly on pastured and woodlot swine raised in agroforestry systems.
- Provide training opportunities for veterans with hands-on components, including workshops and Armed to Farm Boot Camp.  We use the university farm as a base to build community, as well as local veteran farms.
- Develop customized internships for veterans with mentors in NC and AR to help support veterans learning in relationships.
- Provide networking to support veterans.  For example, we will work with the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, NC AgrAbility, and coordinate with efforts in NC that support farmer veterans.

See frontlinetofarm.appstate.edu for more details.

Keywords: Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP);
Wyoming new and beginning producers; farm management; risk management;
financial management; estate transfer and management succession strategies

The overall project goal will provide education, mentoring, and technical assistance to
offer beginning farmers and ranchers the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to make
informed decisions for their operations, and enhance their sustainability. In addition,
the project seeks to ensure Wyoming beginning producers are well-informed of risk
management alternatives allowing them to take full advantage of existing insurance
products and other risk controls by offering training and resources covering various
financial management, risk management, enterprise assessment, and risk analysis
topics.

A multidimensional approach will make available training and resources under four
broad objectives:

OBJECTIVE 1: Provide educational opportunities directly to beginning farmers and
ranchers through regionally-offered on-site programming and on-line resources.

OBJECTIVE 2: Provide on-site and on-line educational programs to Wyoming’s new,
beginning, and limited resource farmers and ranchers via FFA classrooms and other
venues.

OBJECTIVE 3: Coordinate and provide hands-on internships on working farms and
ranches to Wyoming's beginning farmers and ranchers each summer in cooperation
with state producer organizations and educational institutions.

OBJECTIVE 4: Develop and circulate media-based education on various financial
management, risk management, enterprise assessment, and risk analysis topics
statewide via articles in agriculture-focused newspapers and producer-organization
newsletters.

Stone Barns Center's beginning farmer training prepares young farmers to pursue economically and ecologically resilient farm enterprises. The Growing Farmers Initiative is designed for beginning farmers with ten years or less farming experience. Our programs, situated in the lower Hudson Valley, NY, include apprentice training, workshops, conferences, and online learning.

Our farm apprenticeship exposes nine to twelve young farmers each year to farm culture through an intensive nine-month program that offers a mixture of hands-on and classroom-based training in resilient agriculture. Apprentices learn the nuts and bolts of our farm operation and leave with a full understanding of the practical principles of agroecological farming. Apprentice workshops meet weekly and cover essential topic including soil science and management, plant botany, landscape design and ecology, engine mechanics, animal husbandry, and farm business planning. These sessions, open to young farmers from throughout the region, are taught by Stone Barns staff and other experts.

Our conferences and online learning platforms expose farmers from across the U.S. to the principles of resilient farming. In total, the 2015 and 2016 Young Farmers Conferences welcomed 550 young farmers, 25% on scholarship, and covered topics on crop production, business management, animal husbandry, land access, and more. Each workshop is approximately 90 minutes and 98% of participants requested that the workshops be offered again the following year. One young farmer said: "It was such a pleasure to attend; the quality of the presenters and the participants were very impressive; and I really appreciated the welcoming and supportive vibe of the whole conference." In 2015 and 2016, we also hosted Poultry School, two-day conference offering 20 sessions around sustainable poultry production attended by 300 farmers total. 

Our E-Learning tools have also been a great success, with 60,000 unique views in the past two years (average 20 minutes viewing time).

The long-term goal of this project is to support the economic and ecological viability of the next
generation of diverse California farmers including urban, peri-urban and rural farmers and ranchers from diverse communities including Latino, Southeast Asian, and African American. Through in-depth training offered at established and emergent “agricultural learning hubs,” this project aims to build on the successes and lessons of two prior BFR projects. By partnering with the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE), Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE), and Alameda County Resource Conservation District (ACRCD) and several local agricultural training hubs, RCDs and NRCSs, this project team is collaborating to offer a combination of in-depth, culturally and regionally appropriate workshops, develop and distribute educational materials and videos, host field days and farmer tours, and strengthen farmer to farmer networks and learning hubs in 10 counties in central California. The expected outcomes are to:

1) improve BFR access to sustainable farming information and technical support,

2) to increase adoption of organic and sustainable farming/ranching practices,

3) enhance the economic success of BFRs through business planning, value added, and marketing education and support,

4) provide referrals to agencies that provide access to land, financial and other services,

5) improve food safety among urban and peri-urban farmers, and

6) strengthen farmer-to-farmer learning networks via an innovative network of agricultural learning hubs.

Although the number of Americans ages 25-34 entering the farm industry has grown (2,384 between 2007-2012), the number of African-Americans ages 18-35 have shown no gains (remaining at 3%). Since 2011, the HABESHA Works Program has trained over 120 black beginning farmers (ages 18-35) in sustainable agriculture and agribusiness development. Currently, 40% of program graduates are employed with farms and markets, or own small farms in the southeast. In order to support the long-term success of its growing network of graduates, HABESHA will launch the HABESHA Agricultural Leadership Opportunity (HALO Program). 
The HALO program will provide education related to 1) creating farm management plans, 2) developing farm business plans and improving business practices, and 3) building leadership qualities and supportive networks. The first phase of the program is a comprehensive curriculum that will use workshops, field trips, and practical exercises to guide participants through the development of a farm business plan and other learning objectives. The second phase, an applied learning intensive, will provide participants with farm mentoring and business coaching while they implement their farm business plan. Based on prior successes, HABESHA anticipates cohorts of 10 to 15 participants to complete the program annually. 

HALO program partners include the Food Well Alliance, a community-based organization that supports food equity initiatives in the Metro Atlanta area. One-hundred percent of the federal funds requested will be allocated to HABESHA Inc., a 501c3 not-for-profit, community-based organization. HABESHA will allocate 100% of the budget to serving socially disadvantaged (African-American) beginning farmers. 

The Women, Food & Agriculture Network (WFAN) has been coordinating successful aspiring and beginning farmer mentorships and learning circles for women and gender non-conforming people 
(WGNC) in the Midwest for over 12 years. This work began from a noted gap in opportunities for aspiring women farmers to find the inspiration, connections and empowerment they needed to pursue their farm dreams. It has grown to support beginning and intermediate farmers in Category 5 (all farmers in categories 1-4, those with 10 or less years of experience) as well as seasoned farmers, in providing networking and training for continued business success.  

Our project will strengthen our existing aspiring and beginning farmer programming in Iowa and extend our reach deeper into six Midwest states - IA, OH, IL, WI, MN, and NE, where limited to no women-centered mentorship programming exists. In addition to the existing program offerings noted above, this project will provide farm-sitting support for participants, which will also allow them to leave their farms to gain additional education and training opportunities. Farm-sitting will also give aspiring and beginning women farmers experience managing the day-to-day farm operations. We’ll provide beginning WGNC farmers in our WFAN network access to additional educational opportunities through collaborator offerings.

Project goals include 1.) providing opportunities for beginning and intermediate (category 5 - all trainees with under 10 years of experience) women farmers in IA, OH, IL, WI, MN, and NE to access local mentorship relationships and resources needed to make best decisions for their future business plans and/or current operations, and 2.) giving aspiring women farmers connections that boost interest, confidence and commitment in choosing farming as a career. Ultimately this project will result in greater success rates for the sustainability of women's farming operations and an increase in start-ups of women-owned and operated farm businesses. 

With this project, Renewing the Countryside will complete a comprehensive, multi-year
project that addresses farmland access challenges facing beginning farmers in Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Iowa. We and our 16 partners will develop an integrated process that assists new,
resource-limited farmers in accessing farmland that is a good match for their operation and offers
secure terms. Our collaboration will:

• Offer 220 beginning farmers farmland access literacy training
• Convene 80 farmers to attend in-depth bootcamps to become better prepared for pursuing their
  land access goals
• Connect 400 beginning farmers and 200 people who work with farmers to resources,
• Launch a Farmland Access Hub that provides in-depth support to at least 36 beginning farmers
• Conduct a media campaign that reaches 40,000 people
• Hold a Farmland Access Summit, with at least 100 stakeholders attending.

Our long-term goal is: 75 percent of beginning farmers (27 of 36) served by the Navigators will
have secure land tenure (long-term lease or ownership) by 2022 and the Farmland Access Hub will
secure long-term funding in order to continue to provide new farmers land access services.

The successful transfer of farm and rangeland to the next generation of producers will be key to ensuring the continued and long-term vitality of agriculture in Pennsylvania. However, studies show that over two-thirds of retiring farmers have not identified successors and that nearly 90% of farm owners neither have an exit strategy nor know how to develop one (i). As aging and retiring landowners seek new proprietors and stewards, these transfers of land will become increasingly common (including an estimated 40% of American agricultural land within the next 15 years) (ii). As such, new and beginning farmers and ranchers will increasingly be relied upon for the success of these land transfers. This project seeks to address these barriers to successful transfer by realizing two long-term goals. The first goal is to support these new and beginning producers in navigating the decision-making involved in pursuing farm and rangeland tenure opportunities.
Equally important to these successful transfers will be new and beginning producers’ ability to establish and build savings for long-term assets. To this end, economic development tools like agricultural individual development accounts (IDAs) need to be assessed for their applicability in Pennsylvania, and for the target audience of new and beginning farmers and ranchers. As such, this project’s second goal is to develop a needs assessment and action plan for piloting an agricultural IDA program in Pennsylvania, which would assist new and beginning producers in either saving for or securing the financing necessary for acquiring long-term assets (such as farm or rangeland).

This project addresses the needs of 604 California beginning farmers and ranchers in years 4-10 of their operations who need to secure land tenure, gain management skills to go beyond short-term profits to long-term stability, and access the right kinds of markets. The long-term project goal is to provide beginning farmers with an integrated and impactful array of technical assistance, education, tools and resources so they can: 1) successfully access land, 2) gain financial management techniques and capital readiness, and 3) develop appropriate marketing strategies. The project's approach emphasizes 1:1 education and technical assistance along with robust group education, and also integrates structured small group learning with 1:1 technical assistance to ensure that knowledge is translated into action. The collaborating partners are experts in their fields and are well established service providers. No other California organizations provide beginning farmers with this suite of services. Project outcomes, farmer services and results are all maintained with ongoing and annual data collection and reporting with an established database that tracks project outcomes related to land access, farmers' adoption of financial practices and knowledge gained.

Other Collaborating organization:

A) Community Alliance with Family Farmers

B) Kitchen Table Advisors

C) Poppy Davis- Consultant

The LIFT OFF goal is to educate and assist 125 beginning, limited-resource, socially disadvantaged farmers to plan, launch, and/or establish viable organic farm businesses. LIFT OFF will serve low-income Latinos in the Salinas Valley – many of whom are immigrant farm workers - helping them pursue the dream of farm ownership.

ALBA is uniquely qualified for the endeavor due to an experienced team, a fully-owned and equipped training facility, and a proven multi-year farmer development program. Furthermore, ALBA will tap five longstanding partner organizations to expand and extend business support services to beginning farmers during and after they transition from ALBA’s land.

Regardless of where farms are in a 10-year development pathway, the project provides customized services to address their needs. Each project objective engages farms at a distinct stage of development from pre-launch through to maturity in order to provide tailored services.

? Objective 1: Plan and Pilot - Farmers receive intensive education and TA to prepare for and launch farm businesses on small acreage to test commitment and capacity.

? Objective 2: Establish and Expand: Farms strengthened through intensive production and business development services to enable growth and viability.

? Objective 3: Move On and Mature: Farms receive land matching, financing, marketing and business consulting services to firmly establish independent farm businesses off-site.
Working in tandem. the project consortium offers a full range of farm incubation services, from access to education and resources to technical assistance on production and management to linkages with business services and produce buyers.

In the next two decades, more than two-thirds of privately held U.S. farmland will change hands, creating great potential opportunity for beginning farmers. Many of these are first-generation farmers from non-farm backgrounds, who need support to determine how land tenure decisions will impact the financial health of their farm businesses. Although there are a number of financial planning tools available, none are specifically focused on financial decision-making for land access.

The overarching goal for this BFRDP Standard Project is to enable beginning farmers and ranchers across the country to make informed financial decisions during the process of accessing land so that they will have a solid framework on which to build strong, sustainable farm businesses.

This project will allow farmers throughout the country to navigate land access options--including long-term leases, land trust partnerships, mission-driven farmland investor opportunities, and traditional farm loans. The project would create an interactive Land Affordability Calculator Tool (both online and print workbook versions), and include a series of 10 webinars and 8 in-person trainings. The project resources will reach thousands of beginning farmers through our extensive email, social media and partner networks. We will measure the success of the project by demonstrating improved financial literacy of project participants. Additional project partners include Fathom Information Design, Equity Trust, CA FarmLink, Dirt Capital Partners, the Carrot Project, Land for Good, Local Farms Fund, RSF Social Finance, Farm Credit East, the Farm Credit Council, as well as individual farmers, and others.

The project will focus on entrepreneurship and business training for beginning
aquaculture farmers in Maine, who comprise the vast majority of the sector.

It will improve the resiliency of small aquaculture farms by focusing on financial and risk management training, including improving upon Maine aquaculture business planning and risk management tools, aiding farmers in developing diversification and marketing strategies, including the exploration of new markets, and providing an overview of farm financial benchmarking.

The project’s plan of action is to update the aforementioned tools and resources and then meet with beginning farmers to provide entrepreneurship, business, financial, and risk management training, while sharing the updated resources with the farmers. The meetings with the farmers will also include information and guidance on diversification and marketing strategies, including the exploration of new markets, along with how to take part in farm financial benchmarking.

PD Brayden will then continue to follow-up and meet with these beginning farmers as they progress through their business planning process, form their new marketing and diversification strategies, and begin their own benchmarking. The goals for the project are to help farmers assess, analyze, and plan for the future of their farms to create a financial safety net and improve sector resiliency, all while generating jobs and economic growth in the rural areas in which aquaculture often occurs, as nearly all of this planning will take place on beginning farms that are intent on expansion.

The overall project goal is to strengthen the viability of the organic farming sector in the Midwest through providing tailored levels of educational opportunities and building community among beginning and intermediate farmers, including the historically underserved. This will be accomplished by providing farmers the opportunity to engage in multi-generational education where beginning farmers can learn from a mixture of interactions with their peers, experienced mentors, and experts in various fields. Over the course of 3 years, the project will provide educational workshops, networking opportunities, and one-on-one mentorship from experienced farmers and experts.

The Farmer Advancement Program offers a career pipeline to support beginning farmers and ranchers throughout their different levels of development. This program focuses on the development of peer-cohorts of new, intermediate, and more experienced beginning farmer units based on experience level. It also pairs beginning farmers across these experience cohorts to help them support and mentor each other in the challenging lifestyle and financial risks they will all face daily. We will offer environments and structures necessary to facilitate networking with their peers and experts, access resources appropriate to their experience, and learn to sustain a farm business for the long-term.

Objective 1 – Identify beginning farmers/ranchers in our project states (MN, IL, WI) and coordinate appropriate programming with project partners.

Objective 2 – Build sustainability of farming operations and careers of farmers by providing educational opportunities and matching experienced farmers and experts with beginning farmers to share knowledge, experiences, and skills.

Immigrant and refugee beginning farmers face critical barriers to success, including lack of access to land, training, and markets, compounded by language barriers and limited support systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has created training and marketing challenges, but also led to program innovations that support skills acquisition, market access, and social connections leading to faster farm business growth. The New Roots and Shoots project will build on these lessons to support 120 socially disadvantaged beginning farmers to gain the skills, resources, and opportunities to enter and improve their farm businesses through intensive, individualized assistance and wraparound support. The project has 5 main objectives: (1) improve farmer crop production and food safety practices through on-farm training, 1:1 technical assistance and language-specific video production; (2) increase farmer revenue through developing new market links and providing training in marketing practices; (3) develop infrastructure and productive resources on 6.6 acres of peri-urban farm incubation land; (4) assist farmers to adopt crop and financial recordkeeping practices; and (5) enhance farmer support networks through farmer-to-farmer training events and communities of practice. This project is a collaborative effort of the International Rescue Committee’s National Technical Unit; IRC programs in Salt Lake City, Tucson, and Seattle; immigrant and refugee farmer groups in all three sites; and university extension programs and produce marketing groups in the three locations.

The Rodale Institute Farmer Training (RIFT) Program is a multiple-track immersive internship that gives aspiring farmers, including military veterans, the knowledge, skills and experience they need to enter careers in organic farming.  RIFT interns will experience the entire life cycle of an organic diversified crop and livestock farm, while also learning how to distribute and increase access to healthy organic food. The program offers all farm-based interns the opportunity to learn about organic vegetable production and management, raising pigs and chickens in an organic environment, as well as crop harvesting, processing, packaging and marketing via season long (35 weeks) and short-season (8-16 weeks) internships utilizing curricula developed under previous BFRDP awards (#2015-70017-22855 and #2017-70017-26843).

Follow-on opportunities for interns include additional training with our project partners Pocono Organics and The Seed Farm which increase potential for success. Our partnership with the Farmer Veteran Coalition allows expansion of program outreach efforts focusing on veterans interested in learning about organic agriculture as a career. 

The program serves the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond through activities aligned with the following goals: 

 Goal 1: To equip new farmers, including military veterans, with the knowledge, skills and practical experience to be successful in operating their own organic farm enterprises and enhance sustainability of their operations.
 Goal 2: To increase the number of successful organic farm enterprises in the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond.
        Goal 3: To support new farmers, including military veterans in their transition to the         organic agriculture workforce.

Percentage of total federal funds allocated to NGOs – 38%
Percentage of budget allocated to beginning farmers (excluding military veterans) - 30%
Percentage of budget allocated to serving military veterans - 32%

This proposal targets beginning farmer refugees and people of color in the urban areas of Tucson (IRC & University of AZ Cooperative Extension, UACE) and Phoenix (Spaces of Opportunity & UACE) plus Indigenous Peoples and other limited resource beginning producers in rural areas of northern (Flagstaff Foodlink & UACE), central (San Carlos) and southeast (UACE) Arizona. These are new nonprofit partnerships and mainly new audiences for UACE. 18+ BF refugees, the first of which arrived in Tucson in 2017, are growing on .6 of an acre and the UA Campus Ag Center has 3-5 acres plus high tunnels that they can lease through this project. UA-CAC provides tillage to prepare the soil for planting along with pressurized water for drip and sprinkler irrigation on this leased land. Another goal for these refugees is to provide education on understanding local market demand conditions and growth by season and product, plus diversification and recordkeeping skills for tracking cash flow and food safety protocols. These business skills along with more acreage will allow IRC-Tucson refugees to expand their agricultural production into a more economically viable business.

Making small-scale agricultural production more economically viable will also be addressed by providing education and assistance on BFRDP priority areas of business and entrepreneurship training, innovative land acquisition strategies, basic production practices, diversification and marketing strategies, climate smart agriculture, acquiring ag. credit and risk management, recordkeeping and food safety, and mentoring. We are proposing a series of 5 workshop trainings annually for 6 locations in AZ that will complement ongoing assistance to beginning farmers provided by nonprofit partners and UACE personnel located in each of the 6 areas. We expect to provide education and assistance to 270 unique beginning producers, very intensively for 50 (daily/weekly assistance), ongoingly for 95 (monthly/quarterly education), and intermittently for 125 (bi-annually/annually). 

Ranching is more complex than ever and these complexities can be daunting for both those who have grown up in agriculture and those who are just beginning their own ranching operation. A changing ranching industry also leads to greater possibilities to diversify and explore business opportunities that offer unique strategies to bring the next generation to the ranch quicker. Whether individuals are coming back to their family ranch or are in search or first-generation ranching opportunities, the institutional knowledge of the older generation is not being conveyed to their young and beginning operators. Thus, it is evident that a robust educational program is needed to prepare young and beginning farmers and ranchers to step into their ranching roles and take advantage of opportunities in an ever-changing marketplace.

The Colorado Cattlemen's Association (CCA) and Colorado State University (CSU) will offer educational opportunities to beginning farmers and ranchers in Colorado, through the Colorado Ranching Legacy Program. Beginning with the Ranching Legacy Lectureships, which will be held throughout the year, with the objective to provide comprehensive, hands-on educational
lectureships for beginning farmers and ranchers In addition, Ranching Legacy Online will be hosted through CSU Online with the objective to provide comprehensive, flexible education for any person interested in ranching, specifically beginning farmers or ranchers. Each component of the Ranching Legacy Program has different structures and targets different audiences, but
work in collaboration to accomplish the goal of reaching a greater number of young and beginning producers. Through these educational programs, young and beginning farmers and ranchers will gain the educational training they need to lead their operation and ensure it is a sustainable, working landscape into the future.

Land Stewardship Project (LSP) project entitled Regional Farmer-led Education and Training Hubs for Building Resiliency and Viable Farms in Minnesota and Wisconsin is responding to the emerging needs of farmers in four distinct geographic service regions of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and uses partnerships to provide relevant education, mentoring, and technical assistance to beginning farmers with diverse needs.

The long-term goals of this project are to: 1) Offer proven beginning farmer training programs for varying levels of farming experience, with enhanced, farmer-informed curricula; 2) Develop two new farmer-led regional training hubs to increase resiliency of beginning farmers with 5-10 years’ experience; and 3) Collaborate with Red Lake Nation to develop a new curriculum and build community capacity to support socially-disadvantaged beginning farmers. The key collaborating partners for this project are: Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES); Angelic Organics Learning Center; Soil & Water Conservation Districts (SWCD) in three rural Minnesota counties; Cultivating Resilience, LLC; established farmer-leaders from across the region; the 4 Directions Development (4DD) corporation and community leaders of the Red Lake Nation.

This collaborative project will be led by LSP, a nonprofit community-based organization with more than 25 years of experience developing farmer-informed and farmer-led programming to support beginning farmers. LSP’s grassroots model makes the farmer’s voice the primary source of information for all programs and services offered, and has resulted in a set of unique and successful farmer training programs, some of which have been replicated across the country, such as the Farm Beginnings program. LSP’s farmer-led and community-based approach leads to ongoing innovation in how we engage and support beginning farmers, as the changing needs of farmers dictate the curricula and delivery models of our programs. 

This program has a goal to increase the ability of socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers and military veterans to operate their farms and forestry enterprises in a 20-county area around the I-95 Corridor in the Lowcountry region of SC. The needs of these landowners have been identified as:

1. lack of knowledge, technical assistance and resources to sustainably manage their land,
2. landowners "disinterested" attitude in harvesting as shown by lack of planning for the future of the land, and
3. dealing with the complications of land owned by groups of legally undetermined joint heirs (i.e., heirs' property), which is a critical barrier to successfully owning and managing farming/forestry enterprises.

This collaborative will accomplish this goal by achieving the objectives of:

1. increasing farmers' capacity to access technical assistance and government cost-share programs for farming and forestry management,
2. increasing farmers' knowledge of farming and sustainable forestry and full array of forestry-related programs, resources & markets available to them and
3. increasing landowners' knowledge of how to resolve their heirs' property (HP) issues in order to benefit from USDA cost share programs and establish succession plans.
   

This project is designed to meet the Standard Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) project's long-term goal of improving the success of beginning farmers and ranchers (BFR) in farming and management of nonindustrial private forest lands by providing the tools of education/training, mentoring and outreach programs that help them make informed decisions to increase the likelihood that their operations will be sustainable.
Collaborating institutions/organizations: Center for Heirs' Property Preservation, AgFirst, ArborGen, SC Forestry Commission, The Nature Conservancy of SC, Beaufort County Open Land Trust, Clemson University Extension Services, SC USDA NRCS, Increasing H.O.P.E., USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station and Woodland Community Advocates.

Our goal is to increase the number of beginning farmers who operate successful, profitable farm enterprises in New York --specifically, Delaware, Schoharie, and Otsego Counties–as well as strengthen and ramp up the operations of beginning farmers Statewide in the first 10 years of operation, thereby keeping approximately 200,000 acres of arable farmland in production and sustaining NYS’ role as a leading agricultural State in the Northeast. This goal fulfills our 30 year mission--to increase the number and diversity of successful farm enterprises and related businesses in New York. We will implement our three-year project to: 

1) establish 12-15 new farms in Delaware, Otsego, and Schoharie Counties with high impact, deep touch “A-Z” services from farmland access to landowner/producer matchmaking, on-farm skills building to business development to access to capital to markets/sales; and 
2) enhance, strengthen, and ramp up operations of 1,000 beginning farms Statewide in their first 10 years with our mid/light touch services using business development and management workshops and webinars, on-farm events, facilitating networks/peer connections, interactive online content and resources, and referrals. 

With a range of partners, our project will deliver relevant, “farming for a new era” content: 
facilitating access to farmland in the 3 counties;
technical assistance on securing farmland; 
educational training via peer-to-peer mentoring, apprenticeships, pasture-walks; 
legal and business support; 
business development;
financial planning;  
product development;
assistance in accessing capital;
market R&D, market planning;
producer/buyer/distributor matchmaking to secure market share;
social support.