Cross Over Community Development
Project: Resilient Farming for Immigrants, Refugees, and the Underserved
Award Amount: $244,000
State(s): Ohio
Project Description: This project targets immigrants becoming small-scale family farmers, bringing a wealth of skills but needing assistance to thrive as producers. Immigrants and refugees are underserved newcomers who need education regarding access to capital, technology, insurance, and marketing strategies. The project will provide farmers with 40 comprehensive educational sessions on each of these topics. The evaluation will measure the percentage of farmers reporting selection or adoption of risk management procedures, including Good Agricultural Practices, water use decisions, diversification of crops, and enrollment in insurance or assistance programs.
Georgia Organics
Project: The Resilient Farmer Project
Award Amount: $104,000
State(s): Georgia
Project Description: The Resilient Farmer Project provides comprehensive outreach and educational program to inform organic and historically underserved farmers throughout Georgia about risk management tools, including the Whole Farm Revenue Protection, Micro Farm Program, as well as business strategies and record keeping. The project plans to emphasize small farms/ranches, specialty crop producers, sustainable/regenerative producers, and organic producers when conducting outreach about our programming while prioritizing historically underserved producers.
Napa Valley Grapegrowers
Project: Napa Valley Grapegrowers Risk Management Education: Organic and Specialty Crops; Climate Risk and Water Conservation; Crop Insurance
Award Amount: $167,000
State(s): California
Project Description: Project will provide risk management education to 500 Napa winegrape producers, providing topical education/training on: climate smart agriculture, organic and specialty crop farming, Crop Insurance 101, and water conservation. The topics will be delivered through new, innovative Virtual Reality Winegrape Education, one Sustainable Vineyard Practices Conference, and an Organic Farming Practices Report. Among others, clear and reasonable producer outcomes achieved as a result of activities are: increased understanding of existing and emerging risk management tools (i.e. crop insurance and water management) and the implementation of climate smart agriculture practices (i.e. adopted or increased crop insurance coverage and organic specialty crop practices).
Oregon Tilth
Project: Risk Management Education for Organic and Transitioning to Organic Producers
Award Amount: $202,000
State(s): National
Project Description: Project will increase the awareness, understanding, and use of crop insurance and risk management tools by organic producers and those transitioning to organic. A robust educational campaign and training series building on our success helping producers access federal programs and our roles working with transitioning producers will be created and delivered. As a result of this project, we expect a change in knowledge, attitude, and behavior including increased understanding of relevant crop insurance options and ultimately decisions related to the use of crop insurance.
Northeast Organic Farming Association
Project: Climate-Smart Risk Management and Strategic Business Planning to Support the Long-Term Viability of Vermont Farms
Award Amount: $149,000
State(s): Vermont
Project Description: Through a combination of educational offerings, cohort-based activities, and individualized business assistance, the project will support Vermont farmers in increasing their knowledge of climate-smart agriculture and risk management tools, including crop insurance. Outcomes will also include increases in farmers’ ability to integrate these practices and tools into their business plans, access capital for practice implementation, and to operate viable farm businesses.
RightRisk, LLC
Project: Delivering Crop Insurance and Other Risk Management Training To Producers in Alaska, 2024-2025
Award Amount: $113,000
State(s): Alaska
Project Description: A multi-pronged approach will be used to help Alaskan producers better understand and implement crop insurance and risk management strategies to improve their opportunities for success. On-site trainings will occur at three agricultural conferences, one informal gathering of producers marketing their products via farmer’s markets, and targeted to beginning producers; creation and distribution of three Keys to Success profiles and recorded presentations focused on crop insurance, financial risk, and marketing risk; four Alaska-specific newsletters; one-on-one coaching; and visits to RightRisk’s Alaska-specific website. Trainings will be targeted to Native Alaskans, veterans, beginning farmers, specialty crop producers, women, socially disadvantaged, and traditional farmers, especially those producers of flowers and other specialty crops
Rural South Institute
Project: Experiential Risk Management Education and Training for Producers of Color in Alabama and Mississippi: A Focus on Value-Added and Climate-Smart Agriculture, Farm Financial Literacy, Federal Crop Insurance, and a Suite of USDA Programs
Award Amount: $300,000
State(s): Alabama & Mississippi
Project Description: The project will assist diverse farmers of color and empower them to build resilient farm operations through increased participation in crop insurance and asset-building programs, and adoption of value-added and climate-smart agricultural practices.The project includes outreach assistance aimed at promoting access to resources, education, and training tailored to producers' needs.
University of Arkansas
Project: Preparing Native Beginning Farmers & Ranchers for Climate Resilience
Award Amount: $398,000
State(s): National
Project Description: This project renews a collaboration with RMA, developing a new series of workshops that support young Native beginning farmers and ranchers (BFR’s) by equipping them with culturally appropriate risk mitigation strategies focused on climate resilience and strengthening local Tribal food economies. Although training on the five areas of risk is not something commonly done with this audience, we believed that collaboration with RMA will give youth producers a critical perspective on mitigating their risks at exactly the right time in their agricultural careers, as they could build in risk management from the beginning of their operations. This is a critical opportunity for Native producers especially, since they will have to navigate some of the most complicated legal risks that any producer faces given the complex and often shifting nature of federal Indian law and its impact on land use for agricultural purposes in Indian Country.
University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture
Project: Training Small-Scale Producers on Whole Farm Revenue Protection and Micro Farm Crop Insurance
Award Amount: $212,000
State(s): Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia
Project Description: The project will deliver material that has been previously developed with funding provided by the Southern Risk Management Education Center through online and in-person Train-the-Trainer workshops. One in-person workshop, focused on serving all 19 of the 1890 Land Grant institutions will be organized. Presentations at each workshop will pull from material covered in the workbook with topics such as how to buy federal crop insurance, how WFRP and MF are designed, the forms required to purchase insurance, tax implications of federal crop insurance, and opportunities available for Beginning and Veteran Farmer and Ranchers. Additionally, a training on two decision aids for WFRP and Micro Farm will be offered. These decision aids are designed to help producers, county extension agents, and crop insurance agents to understand how WFRP and WFRP-MF producer premiums are calculated.
University of Connecticut
Project: Farm Financial Management, Crop Insurance, and Other Risk Management Tools to Help Farmers and Growers to Implement Informed Risk Management Solutions
Award Amount: $109,000
State(s): Connecticut
Project Description: Proposed programs through this project are designed to address and mitigate financial and production risk through on-farm tours, online classes and a crop insurance decision application producers will be trained to use. Our project goal is for farmers to purchase crop insurance and/or add a buy-up option to their current policies as a result of information provided.
University of Maine
Project: Insuring Crop Production and Profitability for Long Term Success of Maine Farmers Facing a Changing Climate
Award Amount: $243,000
State(s): Maine
Project Description: The Maine Crop Insurance Education Program will help farmers mitigate risk due to climate events, pest outbreaks, market changes and poor business skills through increased awareness and understanding of Federal Crop Insurance programs. Business planning and risk management education will be offered to encourage risk reduction through crop insurance. Farmers will be reached through group meetings, consultations, workshops, a website and social media.
University of Nevada, Reno
Project: 2024 Nevada Risk Management Education Project
Award Amount: $335,000
State(s): Nevada
Project Description: The “Nevada Risk Management Education Partnership Program” will help producers understand existing and emerging federal crop/livestock insurance programs in Nevada and throughout the West while focusing on local and regional food systems. This statewide and regional project consists of the following programming: American Indian Outreach focusing on the Pasture Rangeland and Forage Program and Crop Insurance 101; Regional Agriculture Market Outlook; Nevada Cattlemen’s Update and Livestock Crop Insurance Education; Urban Agriculture local food systems with Whole Farm and Micro Farm Program; and Specialty Crop Commodities including apiculture for regional food systems.