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Strengthening Urban Gardeners’ Capacity on Risks Mitigations: A Case of Small and Minority Producers in Maryland.

Lila Karki and Prem Bhandari

Summary

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore Extension launched an outreach educational model with the solitary objective to increase the economic efficiency of small, socially disadvantaged, and minority producers. Most participants were Bhutanese American urban gardeners (64%) from the greater Baltimore area with culturally based festivities and unique ethnic food habits. Of the total, 36% were female producers. The model consisted of identifying farming needs hierarchy; locating and making sustainable use of limited and scarce production and marketing resources; practicing interactive need-based learning with peer-to-peer-specialists; promoting the adoption of risk mitigating techniques such as crop diversification, rainwater harvesting, compost making, mixed cropping, multi-tier production systems, and shared-use of production inputs; and developing a data-driven farm production plan for ethnic and specialty vegetables, fruits, and medicinal herbs; and marketing produce. The results of the impact assessment survey revealed that participants strengthened their knowledge and skills in mitigating production, marketing, and financial risks (96%), changed their behavior and actions (91%), increased consumption of fresh vegetables (91%), and enhanced their entrepreneurial capacity (96%). Additionally, crop diversification practice expanded to an average of 20 specialty, medicinal, and ethnic crops grown on an average of 1.2 acres. Moreover, participants benefited technically and socio-economically through marketing initiatives, reporting a total of $14,200 in economic benefit through direct and indirect marketing of vegetables during the summer and fall of 2022. Yet to be studied are the environmental benefits of increased fresh garden produce, improved healthy eating habits, improved soil health, and lowered carbon footprint by reducing food transportation/vehicle movement.

Details

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