Educating small and limited resource farmers on alternative horticultural crops and international vegetables
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Dr. Arvazena Clardy, Extension Assistant Professor/4-H SET and NRCS Outreach Coordinator & Sherry Crudup, Research Assistant
ith mega-farms and corporations producing many of today's more popular cash crops, small and limited resource producers, forest landowners, and ranchers need an edge to remain competitive. By producing alternative crops and international vegetables, these small farmers can fill a niche while supplementing their income, and gain ground against the competition. In order to do so, however, they need to know the alternative practices necessary to efficiently produce these alternative crops. That's where TSU's Dr. Arvazena Clardy and Sherry Crudup come in with the Small Farm Outreach and Assistance Program. As part of an ongoing effort to address alternative crop selection, this project has grown 25 different varieties of herbs, 12 different varieties of peppers, and Christmas Cactuses, analyzing the use of slowrelease fertilizers and their productivity along the way. Additionally, this project is working on discovering alternative ways for these small and limited resource producers to market their produce through a number of innovative sales methods that might be able to give them a leg up on the competition.
For the past two years, this program has sponsored the Agricultural Outreach and Asssistance Conference to prepare and present educational workshops that assist farmers in the production of these alternative and international crops. This assistance provides farmers and producers with the knowledge ne-
cessary to add profit to their enterprise through "offseason" crops without the need to increase the number of employees. All told, this program has provided training, education and information regarding how to produce these alternative crops and the benefits of doing so, as well as best practices for business development and management to approximately 330 participants. For more information regarding the production of alternative horticultural crops and international vegetables, or the Agricultural Outreach and Assistance Conference, contact Dr. Arvazena Clardy at aclardy@tnstate.edu.