BFRDP Projects

The mission of HAP’s SFUM program is to enhance food security and community development by providing beginning farmers and their families with the education and resources needed to make informed decisions to enhance their farming success and sustainability.
During the three year project period, HAP collaborated with respected partners to deliver more than 49 professional development workshops to 50 beginning farmers which impacted not only the farmers, but their extended families and networks.  Beyond the cohort members, the SFUM program was instrumental in supporting annual farmer conferences that provided networking and professional development opportunities to benefit the entire Hmong farming community and their food production abilities in the St. Paul and Minneapolis metropolitan area in Minnesota.  Outreach and networking reached over 700 members of the Hmong farming community over the three year project period.
Professional development workshops provided information critical to success in agricultural entrepreneurship, as well as current topics of interest to the farmers each year.  Farmers learned about the business aspects of farming needed to increase their ability to support themselves in the U.S.  For example, they learned about marketing fundamentals and were able to create marketing strategies and plans including signage, product display and social media to impact their sales and income as they expanded into new farmers markets and community supported agriculture (CSA) co-ops.  Through mentorship, technical assistance, and field visits, they also learned about organic farming techniques that influenced their decisions regarding pest and weed management and the potential earnings related to producing organic certified produce.  Nearly all of the cohort members reported learning new strategies about business planning, budgeting, marketing, farm law and new techniques that improved their ability to grow and sell quality produce.