Project Overview
The Northern Colorado Foodshed Project Farm Business Accelerator program has built on an innovative community partnership to provide beginning farmers with the tools to establish a successful farm business. The Accelerator is supporting farm business viability through education, mentorship, technical assistance, and facilitation of long-term land and market access. The target audience is beginning specialty crop farmers with farm work experience and an interest in establishing their own enterprise but without the business skills or financial wherewithal to immediately do so. Many farms in the region provide entry-level training to aspiring farmers with little to no experience. However, at the next stage of development, when they have ideas, skills, and initiative for their own enterprise but are not yet capable of purchasing land and water, these beginning farmers often leave our rapidly-developing region in search of more affordable land access. The Accelerator is filling this critical gap, retaining these much-needed farmers in Northern Colorado. Our objectives are: 1) Design a locally-adapted Farm Business Accelerator program that goes one step beyond a traditional farm incubator and fills a critical gap between initial training in farming skills and establishment of a viable business. 2) Establish a sustainable three-year program that provides affordable land and water access alongside integrated training in business and farming skills. 3) Connect program participants with established and emerging marketing opportunities, including facilitating collaborative marketing. 4) Ensure that program graduates have long-term, affordable access to farmland, as well as familiarity with and connections to potential funders and investors. We have made great strides in these objectives and are working towards developing a roadmap of sorts to provide applied knowledge and experience to other programs across the country interested in developing Accelerator programs and accessing land and community support through novel land stewardship structures.
Number of Participants: 2
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