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INVESTIGATOR: Mota-Sanchez, D.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
MICHIGAN STATE UNIV
EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN 48824

LA COSECHA (THE HARVEST) 2020: EXPANDING THE SUCCESS AND SUSTAINABILITY OF FARMING FOR BEGINNING LATINO FARMERS

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Latinos in the Great Lakes region are beginning farmers in the small fruit industry and are just entering vegetable production (peppers and tomatillo). This community is transitioning from city workers and farm laborer settings to farm owners, replacing an older generation of Caucasian farmers. The next generation of Latinos are bicultural and bilingual and are striving to become successful farmers. At Michigan State University the La Cosecha (the Harvest) program has been successfully training Latino farmers (los granjeros) in pest management, vegetable production, and business. These farmers have been successfully establishing themselves into agribusinesses but many are facing serious challenges that are threatening their new livelihoods but that can be remedied through education and experience. The challenges include use of low-quality varieties, reduced fruit pollination, and reduced access to markets. Good Agricultural Practices (GAPS) training and pest management and pesticide safety is needed by these farmers. Language barriers and need for stronger business and marketing skills are also major hurdles. Latino farmers are hardworking and driven to succeed. They are also a rising component of Michigan's agriculture sector. It is essential that beginning Latino farmers are provided with the necessary tools and training to overcome adverse conditions to support crop production, business dealings, and marketing, and thereby positively impact the economy of Michigan and the Great Lakes region. This project "La Cosecha (The Harvest) 2020" aims to assist and provide education and training tools to socially disadvantaged beginning Latino farmers including younger generations (30 and under); farm workers ("jornaleros"), and Latinos from non-farming backgrounds that are transitioning to become beginning farmers. This project will be led by Michigan State University (Entomology, Migrant Student Services (MSS) and MSU Extension) in collaboration with Telamon Corporation, a NGO with strong expertise in agricultural production training and outreach for new farmers. Our target is to increase the participation of Latinos in this group (kinships, los parientes) in programs that are will enhance their sustainability and promote the farming livelihood which carries the responsibility of environmental stewardship. Our target audience are Latinos small farmers in southwest Michigan.The objectives of La Cosecha (the Harvest) 2020 are: a) increase fruit and crop production and diversification; b) provide the training in business, marketing and access to the food systems (hubs); d) train in safety practices including (GAPs) and pesticide education; e) access to the USDA programs; and f) provide essential training in packaging. Our prediction is that Latino farmers will be able to make right decisions about crop production and improve both sustainability and food safety. Lessons learned in our model system will be applicable to other groups of beginning farmers around the country.

OBJECTIVES: Goal 1. To expand the sustainable access by socially-disadvantaged Latino farmers to resources and programs and to engage them in modern and efficient pest and nutrient management to support viable crop production, market access, crop diversification, natural resources conservation, and enhanced food security.Objectives. Increase environmentally friendly farming practices by promoting adoption of integrated pest management (IPM), fruit varieties substitution, uses of pollinators, pesticide education, good agricultural practices (GAPS), nutrient management practices, and irrigation practices that mitigate the risk of biotic and abiotic stresses.Increase awareness and link growers to USDA programs for conservation, risk management, and other services of the USDA administered by NRCS, FSA, and RMA.Goal 2. To provide the knowledge and tools in the use of pollination services, business and access to hub food systems and packaging techniques and materials to beginning Latino farmers.Objectives.Provide Latino farmers with the education and training to implement business management plans, marketing, access to food systems (hubs), recordkeeping, financial analysis and identify opportunities for direct marketing including food hubs.Provide training in pollination services that will increase the productivity of fruits.Provide training in packaging that will add value to the harvested fruit.

APPROACH: To meet the objectives a series of workshops (outputs) to train Latino farmers will be performed. Each workshop will be performed annually. Recruitment and communications. The best way to recruit Latino farmers to attend the workshops is by cell phone or text messages during the evenings and/or weekends. In addition, we have a WhatsApp group to provide the news and communicate the training dates. We have access to a big network of Latino farmers (more than 200 farmers and their families) in the area. This project is unique because it targets Hispanic/Latino farmers of Mexican origin ("hombres" and "mujeres") that are transitioning from city workers and farm laborer settings to small fruit farm and vegetable owners. The bilingual, bicultural experience, and agricultural background from PIs and personnel (MSU and Telamon), will guarantee the success of this project. The use of text messages as an additional tool for recruitment and weather and pest alert is also unique and provides a quick and timely relay of important information to the target audience.Evaluation Component. All projects like this must consider a quasi-experimental integrated monitoring and evaluation system (M&E) that allows the project team to know the performance of the project and its impact on collaborators, participant farmers, and non-participant farmers. M&E activities have to be applied before (ex-ante), annually (in-cursu), and after (ex-post) the project's life. M&E systems can include a Base Line Study, annual evaluation, some monitoring activities, and an impact evaluation. helps to maintain control of the project and provide immediate feedback to the project staff. Some workshops are programmed to spread knowledge among farmers. A monitoring activity will be done after every workshop. The extensionists will handle small questionnaires, with no more than ten questions, to receive the opinion of participant farmers. Some of the topics will be: the usefulness of the knowledge presented in the workshop, their willingness to apply the knowledge on their farms, their opinion about the speaker, their opinion about the materials delivered in the workshop, and their suggestions to the workshops, the speaker, and the project. Other monitoring activities include estimation of crop yields per acre, filling weekly control formats for harvest and sales, monitoring of fruit and vegetables prices in different markets, and monitoring the participation of in government programs, etc.