Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors, 2nd Edition. Unit 6 - Building Resilience: Small Farm Planning and Operations
Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors, 2nd Edition. Unit 6 - Building Resilience: Small Farm Planning and Operations

Author: Jan Perez

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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This unit is about integrated farm planning. The goal of this approach to planning is to integrate the crop plan, the marketing plan, the financial plan, and the time management plan in order to minimize risk and maximize return.All businesses have to manage uncertainty, but farmers face significant risks that are beyond their control, including the vagaries of nature, the fiercely competitive global market, land access challenges, and increased demands from local markets for ever-improved food safety plans and marketing materials. The farmer does not know what will happen each year, but over the life of the farm all of these pressures (and more) will surely influence the farmer's success. While larger farmers selling into the undifferentiated commodity market can manage a great deal of production and marketing risk with crop insurance and marketing contracts, small-scale direct-market farmers have to manage their risks with their wits.As with many things in farming, diversity--combined with planning--is the key. The lectures, exercises, and background scenario presented in Units 6.0-6.4 provide a framework for planning and operating a small direct-market farm to ensure resilience in an ever-changing world.

Teaching Organic Farming and Gardening
Teaching Organic Farming and Gardening

Author: Martha Brown

Publisher:

Published: 2015-02-23

Total Pages: 704

ISBN-13: 9780982878101

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Drawing on nearly 50 years of teaching organic farming and gardening, the staff of the UC Santa Cruz Farm & Garden Apprenticeship and invited authors have developed an updated and expanded resource for instructors based on many of the skills and concepts taught in UCSC's annual Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture program. Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening: Resources for Instructors, 3rd Edition addresses practical aspects of organic farming and gardening, applied soil science, and social and environmental issues in agriculture. New features of the 3rd Edition include revised and expanded lecture outlines, new demonstrations and exercises, detailed narrative supplements to support lecture topics, and new appendices and illustrations. Although much of the material has been developed for field or garden demonstrations and skill building, most of the units can also be tailored to a classroom setting.The 700-page manual was produced by UCSC's Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food System and is designed for a wide audience of those involved in teaching farming and gardening skills and sustainable agriculture concepts, including colleges and universities with sustainable agriculture programs, student farms or gardens, and on-farm education programs; urban agriculture, community garden, and farm training programs; farms with internships or apprenticeships; agriculture extension stations; school gardening programs; organizations such as the Peace Corps, US AID, and other groups that provide international training in food growing and ecological growing methods; and master gardener programs.

The Intelligent Gardener
The Intelligent Gardener

Author: Steve Solomon

Publisher: New Society Publishers

Published: 2012-12-25

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 0865717184

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Presents advice on how to improve growing soil, discussing some of the current misconceptions about soil and providing the best methods for adding enhancements that will produce nutrient-dense foods.

Urban Agriculture
Urban Agriculture

Author: Kimberley Hodgson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781932364910

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Urban agriculture is rising steadily in popularity in the United States and Canada - there are stories in the popular press, it has an increasingly central place in the growing local food movement, and there is a palpable interest in changing cities to foster both healthier residents and more sustainable communities. The most popular form of urban agriculture, community gardening, contributes significantly to developing social connections, building capacity, and empowering communities in urban neighborhoods. Older, industrial cities such as Cleveland, Detroit, and Buffalo, with their drastic loss of population and their acres of vacant land, are emerging as centers for urban agriculture initiatives - in essence, becoming laboratories for the future role of urban food production in the postindustrial city. Because urban agriculture entails the use of urban land, it has implications for urban land-use planning, which is controlled and regulated by municipal governments and planning agencies. This PAS Report provides authoritative guidance for dealing with the implications of this cutting-edge practice that is changing our cities forever.

A Market Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Agroenterprise Development
A Market Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Agroenterprise Development

Author: Shaun Ferris

Publisher: Catholic Relief Services

Published: 2006-09

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1614920028

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This publication is a product of the experiences and lessons learned while implementing agroenterprise projects in eastern and southern Africa. A Market Facilitator's Guide is based on a resource-to-consumption framework, which is the central theme of the "enabling rural innovation" approach for rural development. This approach seeks to empower farmer groups with the necessary skills to make informed decisions for their economic development, based on an analysis of their surroundings, assets and skills. The methodology also aims for outcomes that are equitable, gender focused and participatory.

SMALL-SCALE FAMILY FARMING IN THE NEAR EAST AND NORTH AFRICA REGION
SMALL-SCALE FAMILY FARMING IN THE NEAR EAST AND NORTH AFRICA REGION

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2018-08-09

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 9251095027

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This report provides an overview of a study conducted in the NENA region in 2015-2016 in partnership with FAO, CIRAD, CIHEAM-IAMM and six national teams, each of which prepared a national report. In the six countries under review in the NENA region (Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan and Tunisia), agriculture is carried out primarily by small-scale family farmers, the majority of whom run the risk of falling into the poverty trap, largely due to the continuous fragmentation of inherited landholdings. As such, the development of small-scale family farming can no longer be based solely on intensifying agriculture, as the farmers are not able to produce sufficient marketable surplus due to the limited size of their landholdings. An approach based strictly on agricultural activity is also insufficient (as small-scale family farms have already diversified their livelihoods with off-farm activities). In fact, developing small-scale farming cannot be achieved by focusing strictly on t he dimension of production.

Agricultural Systems: Agroecology and Rural Innovation for Development
Agricultural Systems: Agroecology and Rural Innovation for Development

Author: Sieglinde Snapp

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2017-02-17

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 0128020954

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Agricultural Systems, Second Edition, is a comprehensive text for developing sustainable farming systems. It presents a synthetic overview of the emerging area of agroecology applications to transforming farming systems and supporting rural innovation, with particular emphasis on how research can be harnessed for sustainable agriculture. The inclusion of research theory and examples using the principles of cropping system design allows students to gain a unique understanding of the technical, biological, ecological, economic and sociological aspects of farming systems science for rural livelihoods. This book explores topics such as: re-inventing farming systems; principles and practice of agroecology; agricultural change and low-input technology; ecologically-based nutrient management; participatory breeding for developing improved and relevant crops; participatory livestock research for development; gender and agrarian inequality at the local scale; the nature of agricultural innovation; and outreach to support rural innovation. The extensive coverage of subjects is complemented with integrated references and a companion website, making this book essential reading for courses in international agricultural systems and management, sustainable agricultural management, and cropping systems. This book will be a valuable resource for students of agricultural science, environmental engineering, and rural planning; researchers and scientists in agricultural development agencies; and practitioners of agricultural development in government extension programs, development agencies, and NGOs. - Provides students with an enhanced understanding of how research can be harnessed for sustainable agriculture - Incorporates social, biological, chemical, and geographical aspects important to agroecology - Addresses social and development issues related to farming systems

Farmer Field School Guidance Document
Farmer Field School Guidance Document

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2018-06-08

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 9251091269

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This FFS Guidance Document focuses on the process and critical decisions that are necessary when starting a new FFS programme, and guides the reader through the essential steps required to establish a solid basis for such programmes, in tune with the specific local conditions. It also defines the essential elements and processes required to ensure programme relevance, quality, growth and sustainability. The document differs from most of the FFS manuals and guidelines available in that it focuses on providing support to FFS programme managers and formulators, as opposed to FFS field facilitators or trainers, who are the primary target group for most existing manuals.

Entrepreneurship in Farming
Entrepreneurship in Farming

Author: David Kahan

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789251075470

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A lot is being said these days about farmers becoming ‘entrepreneurs’. But what is entrepreneurship? What does it take to be entrepreneurial? How can an entrepreneurial behaviour be created and sustained? How can entrepreneurial skills be developed? How do entrepreneurial farmers respond to the changing farming environment? What strategies do they use? What actions do they take? And how can extension workers help farmers develop entrepreneurial capacity?