PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (March 21, 2023) – Prairie View A&M University has been awarded $3 million to provide training, education and community engagement to underserved farmers across 60 counties in East Texas via the Climate-Smart Farm Planning Program.
This award is part of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Funding opportunity announced by the USDA.
“Expanding opportunities for small and underserved producers is a key goal of Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Small and underserved producers are facing the impacts of climate change head-on, with limited resources, and have the most to gain from leveraging the growing market demand for agricultural goods produced in a sustainable, climate-smart way. Our goal is to expand markets for climate-smart commodities and ensure that small and underserved producers reap the benefits of these market opportunities.”
“This initiative provides farming communities with the remarkable opportunity to improve their farming practices, systems and technology while addressing the agricultural sector’s increasingly critical need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said PVAMU Vice President of Research & Innovation Magesh Rajan, Ph.D., P.E., MBA. “The funding for these projects boosts our ability to develop projects that support historically underserved farmers across the State of Texas. The success of these initiatives will benefit our programs in the scientific community as well as the greater global agricultural industry.”
The Climate-Smart Farm Planning Program will be implemented in three phases:
- Training and providing technical assistance to farmers;
- Educational programs and field days to implement regenerative agriculture practices; and
- Engagement through partnerships to help farmers move through their first harvest and into the marketplace.
Furthermore, this includes listening to the individual needs of farmers to incorporate regenerative agriculture practices, financial incentives and ongoing advisement.
Clarence Bunch, Ph.D.
The project’s principal investigator is Clarence Bunch, Ph.D., Agriculture Natural Resources program leader of the College of Agriculture and Human Sciences Cooperative Extension Program at PVAMU. Bunch was awarded alongside his colleague, Ram Ray, Ph.D., associate professor in the Cooperative Agriculture Research Center, who is leading the Climate-Smart Sustainability Certificate project.
Bunch has partnered with Cargill Inc. and several community-based organizations, such as Texas AgriForestry Small Farmers and Ranchers, the Landowners Association of Texas, and 100 Ranchers, Inc. to support the diverse range of farmers, ranchers and private forest landowners who will benefit from this new project.
Dr. Bunch noted this would not be possible without CEP Program Specialist Ashley Pellerin, his AgNR Team and the support of Cargill, Inc.
This article by Jenna Craig originally appeared in the March edition of “On the Rise.”
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