The 2011 ASHS Annual Conference

Launched in the Fall of 2008, Innovative Small Farmers’ Outreach Program (ISFOP) provides agriculture-related information and training to the small, under-served farmers and ranchers in some selected Missouri counties. Our typical clients live on farms, make their own farming decisions, provide most of the needed labor, and the total family annual income is less than $50,000. ISFOP’s eight Farm Outreach Workers (FOWs) provide services to 16 counties in the East Central and West Central regions of Missouri, and although we work across racial divide, we pay special attention to serving the minority population living in the Program area.  In order for us to provide the needed assistance, we collect some basic information about the collaborating farm family so that we can make an assessment of their  short-term and long-term goals. This poster presents a summary of the client information we have gathered over the past two years. Of the 174 farm families’ surveyed to-date, there are 23 African American, 6 Latino, and 4 Asian families. The rest are Caucasians (134), of whom 46 are women head of households.  A large majority of them are part-time farmers, and off-farm employment is necessary to meet their family’s needs.  Over 65 percent of the respondents have either a high school diploma and/or some college education.  One reason for this could be that most of our target counties are within easy driving distance from the state’s two largest metropolitan cities which offer many learning opportunities, and  that the rural population is taking advantage of this.  Fifty-six percent of ISFOP clients own less than 20 acres of land, and generate an annual income of $5,000 or less from farming. They do enjoy living in the country (or at least on a couple of acres for urban farmers), but are equally eager to boost their farm income.  As can be expected, most of our collaborators are diversified farmers:  almost 60 percent of them grow vegetables, and this is followed by poultry (22 percent), fruit trees and berries (18 percent), beef cattle (16 percent), and goats (12 percent).  Their biggest challenges are accessing start-up capital, getting the needed training, and finding niche markets.