Future Harvest CASA developed and offered risk management training for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers. The training topics addressed the education needs identified by Chesapeake region farmers in our recent surveys, including building efficient farm systems, marketing product, managing finances, creating value-added businesses, navigating regulations, and recruiting and maintaining employees.
83 individuals attended our four field day workshops in the Central Chesapeake Region. 520 individuals attended our 2019 conference in College Park, MD, 24 of whom were socially disadvantaged producers attending via a scholarship made possible by this grant. There were a total of 931 attendees at the 16 risk management related sessions, with an average of 58 attendees at each session. (Some attendees went to multiple risk management sessions).
On average, over 90% of participants in program events reported they were planning to implement knowledge gained from the programs on their own farm operations. In one-on-one phone interviews, 100% of the interviewed scholarship recipients reported an increased awareness of risks, a new understanding of how to manage those risks, and a plan for implementing risk management strategies.