BFRDP Projects

The overall activities on the first year were limited by the pandemic mandatory curfews, and the political unstable environment during elections and related transitions.  These factors refocus our strategies from direct contact with farmer and ranchers in public settings to online tools, phone conversations and email communications. The government directives for no public gatherings limit public events attendance (e. g., produce market places, social/public events, farm visits, and others). Also, there were delays during the Christmas holidays, from November 2020 to February 2021 in which businesses and farmers became unresponsive to our attempts to outreach and set up meetings. However, we were able to:

• plan strategies for year 2022,
• educate employees about the grant requirements,
• draft powerpoint presentation to share with the public,
• create and record a BFRDP grant program introduction video,
• research educational information from USDA library and other private sources to be use as educational materials,
• research and evaluate educational printing material affordable options,
• attend USDA seminars about the BFRDP grant requirements,
• secure a collaboration contract with the University of PR-Mayaguez Agriculture Department to provide agriculture subject matter experts during the grant implementation to meet the education deliverables,
• translate BFRDP information and educational documents for future distribution,
• market BFRDP grant in our organization website,
• meet with other organizations to assess the local agriculture community,
• meet with other organizations to acquire local agriculture data collection,
• develop internal documents to onboard farmers and ranchers,
• create online information seminars, 
• create online registration and survey tools,
• contact other community organizations to inform about the BFRDP services and seek collaboration (e. g., Farmers Bureau, University of Central Florida),
• meet with a handful of farmers in person that were willing to overcome covid-19 concerns

You can summarized the first year as a period of preparation. Also, as a period of initiating the BFRDP grant implementation plan.