BFRDP Projects

The Farm Collaborative, in partnership with Western Colorado farmers and technical service providers, is launching 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 serves 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 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.