Project Overview
The goal of this project is to enhance long-term resilience of new and beginning farmers (NBFs) selling to direct market outlets in Western North Carolina (WNC) by offering educational resources, region-wide promotions, hands-on training, and networking opportunities to prepare them to start, maintain, or scale up their direct market enterprises. To achieve this goal, year one project activities focused on supporting NBFs in managing marketing, financial, production, and legal risks and builds upon the work of a previous (2018-2021) BFRDP project. Per BFRDP priorities, training/assistance covered diversification/marketing strategies, entrepreneurship/business training, and financial/risk management. These priorities were addressed with special focus on socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers and highlighting strategies for climate-resilient planning and production. Four leading organizations in WNC - ASAP, NC Cooperative Extension, A-B Tech Small Business Center, and Ward and Smith, P.A. and five farmers - used their expertise in direct marketing marketing, farm business/financial planning, climate resilient production practices, and legal risk management to provide NBFs with training, technical assistance, and tools to establish and/or expand their direct marketing farm business.
Number of Participants: 197
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