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Entrepreneurship and Marketing Capacity Building to Access Specialty and High-Value Markets among Latino Farmers in Missouri and Nebraska

Eleazar Gonzalez

Summary

According to the last US Census of Agriculture in 2017, the number of total farms in the U.S. declined 3.2% while Latino farms increased by 15.5% going from 67,000 in 2012 farms to 77,416 in 2017. In Missouri and Nebraska, this increase was significantly larger than other states. Missouri showed Latino farmers increasing by 100% to 1407 farmers while Nebraska increased by 30 % to 492 farmers. In both states, Latino farmers are small farm owners and share similar sociodemographics including a lack of production knowledge of how to increase their farm’s financial incomes. Initially, they enter the industry highly influenced by their cultural heritage which includes agriculture. However, recent studies show that for them, purchasing a small parcel of land and sustaining a profitable income from it can be challenging. These barriers include: a lack of English communication skills, lack of interaction with USDA programs, low-levels of agribusiness literacy, and limited connections with local market outlets (Gonzalez E. 2018). To help them to overcome these barriers, this beginning farmer and rancher program proposes a Community Capacity Agribusiness Plan to Operate which is a plan developed through educational sessions to help farmers increase income and sustain farming and ranching activities. This program has an educational approach combining twelve educational business plan sessions with on-farm demonstrations of sustainable farm techniques. It also trains farmers to focus on creating high-value products to market. Lastly, this program builds community and agribusiness capacity among 64 Latino farmers and ranchers in Missouri and Nebraska.

Details

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