Project Overview
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 is an effort of the International Rescue Committee’s "New Roots" immigrant and refugee farmer training programs in Salt Lake City, Tucson, and Seattle. The project assisted 178 socially disadvantaged
beginning farmers to gain skills, resources, and opportunities to enter and
improve their farm businesses through intensive, individualized assistance in agricultural and farm business development. The project works across 5 main objectives: (1) improve
farmer crop production and food safety practices through on-farm training, 1:1
technical assistance and language-specific or language-free video production; (2) increase
farmer revenue through providing training in
marketing practices and developing new market links; (3) develop infrastructure and productive resources on 19
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.
Number of Participants: 120
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Individual Stories / Examples of Success