Factors such as market volatility, climate change, economic
and geopolitical turmoil, and higher input costs continue to pose significant
risks for Texas agricultural producers. While recent commodity trends of consumers show demand for
organic-sustainable-regenerative agriculture product labels, the agribusiness
concern with Environment, Social, and Governance has been pushed down to producers
at the farm level. Now more than ever,
producers seek education on risk management, crop insurance, non-traditional
markets, and other tools to navigate the evolving dynamics. This project specifically targeted Texas
farmers and ranchers with programs focused on production, marketing, financial,
and legal risk management education.
Program highlights include comprehensive in-depth risk
management training for traditional producers, alongside introductory targeted
initiatives for new market opportunities. One component was designed for evolving crop insurance guidelines and procedures
amid weather extremes. A new program was
introduced to support alternative crops and cropping systems, encompassing
cropping regulations forced down from commodity buyers that go well beyond
established and understood guidelines. Overall, our project delivered a wide range of training, with a total of
13 Extension faculty members facilitated 110 meetings, reaching 4,829 attendees
and accruing an estimated 11,469 client contact hours.