Agricultural News
MATC Helping to Grow our Local Food Supply One Producer at A Time Through Specialty Crop Grant
Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:57:52 CDT
Farm Director, KC Sheperd, had the chance to visit with the Agriculture Business Coordinator at Mid-America Technology Center, Jona Squires, about MATC’s involvement with a specialty crop grant aimed to help producers grow their local food supply.
“We were really excited because we had to opportunity to reach out and be involved with the specialty crops grant that actually flows federally through the Department of Agriculture Food and Forestry,” Squires said.
Since Covid, Squires said she has seen an increase in consumer demand because of the need for a consistent food supply. Producers are looking into more opportunities to capitalize on selling local, Squires added, and this specialty crop grant will help them do that.
“We kind of realized that we had a lot of great producers, but we had a lot of new people wanting to get into production agriculture and specifically specialty crops,” Squires said. “One of those things that we saw a need for was training and education.”
Squires said 40 producers will be selected to participate in four different training opportunities through an online platform for a time period of two years. The selection process, Squires said, includes an application, business plan, and an interview.
After the individuals are selected to participate in the training, Squires said resources and additional mentoring will be offered through zoom to ensure the producers understand how to utilize their local resources and other mentors in the state that may be producing the same specialty crops.
“We hope that we can kind of work with them individually as well as a group, but also allow anybody from across the state the opportunity to take the training,” Squires said.
The training, Squires said, is constantly updated with more modules, videos, chat rooms and other resources to help individuals to be successful.
“We really feel like it will be a great opportunity for Oklahoma producers to ramp up their production and specialty crops,” Squires said.
Regarding specialty crops in Oklahoma, Squires said there was a variety of interest when asking Oklahoma producers for input on the specialty crop grant.
“We saw anything from herbs to cut flowers to maybe more value-added products,” Squires said.
An example of something a producer might learn to do in the training is to take their fresh strawberries that they usually sell at the farmers market, and add value to that product by producing jams, jellies or salsas to extend shelf life.
Squires said they also saw interest in extending the growing season of some winter crops. Because farmer’s markets end in October, Squires added they looked at other opportunities for farmers to market their value-added products year-round.
“With high inputs on everything right now for producers, getting the most for their dollar and connecting them directly to the consumer is probably one of our bigger goals of the project, because we really feel like that is where we can maximize their potential and get their highest return on their investments,” Squires said. “That is the unique part of the partnership that I think is kind of cool.”
The main priorities of the grant, Squires said are production, consumption for producers themselves, and ultimately providing more local food for consumers in the state of Oklahoma. The crop grant, Squires added, will help producers evaluate their marketing plan to find their strengths and weaknesses and go from there.
For more information, or to apply for the grant, click here or contact Jona Squires at jsquires@matech.edu
Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from KC Sheperd and Jona Squires on MATC’s part in the specialty crop grant.
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