BFRDP Projects

The long-term goal of this one year Development project was to build the agricultural capacity among beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers in Massachusetts to operate their own independent farming enterprises, to increase farmer ownership rates, and to build environmental stewardship. The Flats Mentor Farm (FMF) is a program of World Farmers (WF) which provides land and agriculture production infrastructure for beginning farmers while they evaluate the sustainability of farming as a way of life for themselves and their families. 

This one year development project proposal helped achieve the following objectives: 1) Provide technical assistance to beginning farmers according to their level of capacity in the three phases of the Flats Mentoring Program; 2) Provide tools and develop skills on financial and risk management; 3) Increase beginning farmer participation in USDA programs. In the area of training and technical assistance, this project addressed the immediate needs identified by the immigrant and refugee farmer participants at FMF to better understand the complexities of farming in New England: crop production practices, entrepreneurship and business training, financial and risk management, marketing strategies, food safety practices and outreach to USDA programs.

The FMF beginning farmer training model is built on 30 years of experience in working hands-on with refugees and immigrants. The FMF program is based on a model of assessing and defining farmers in the three identified levels of beginning farmers’ capacity and providing training and technical assistance that respects each culture, and the capacity of each farmer to participate on both physical and emotional level.