PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (March 25, 2022) Black farmers across the nation are struggling to keep their small farms. In Texas, Clarence Bunch, Ph.D., program leader for the Cooperative Extension Program (CEP) in the Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) College of Agriculture and Human Sciences (CAHS), plans to ease the burden on some socially disadvantaged African American farmers with a recent grant from the Farmers Fund of American Forest Foundation (AFF).
Clarence Bunch, Ph.D.
This project’s specific intent is to enhance coordination of outreach, relevant agriculture education, and provide training to socially disadvantaged producers. The impact will be sustainability for more farmers to maintain and maximize the potential of their land and farm operation.
The Small Farm Institute (SFI) “under the leadership of Gerard D’Souza, Ph.D., CAHS dean, and director of land-grant programs,” said Bunch was created to help farmers and ranchers gain new knowledge, refine their skills, foster resilience in the agriculture community, engage in innovative research and extension initiatives, and become sustainable.
Bunch and the CEP team have expanded the PVAMU reach from 6 counties to over 50 counties in less than two years with innovative leadership. They will conduct workshops, seminars, conferences, training, education programs, and field days to crop, vegetable, forest, and livestock producers in the counties served.
With the AFF grant, Bunch said he “is looking forward to repositioning Prairie View to a number one institution providing resources to producers like we were years ago.”
At least 25% of Black farmers in the United States are in Texas. In 1920, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) counted 925,708 Black farmers. That number has dwindled inordinately. According to the most recent USDA census of agriculture, in 2017, there were only 48,697 Black farmers, with 11,471 in Texas.
“The Small Farm Institute Dr. Bunch is initiating supports the land-grant mission of our institution, coordinating ways small-scale farming could be more cost-effective for the farmers and the agricultural community. Bunch’s initiative will be bringing innovative measures to dozens of rural and urban farmers to help them manage their land and further develop effective business procedures for food production. Projects such as these have a high potential for a broader economic impact on the region and the state of Texas,” stated Magesh Rajan, Ph.D., PE., MBA, vice president for the Division of Research & Innovation.
The producers maintain there is a history of inequity for those seeking federal loans to support the operation of their farms. The global COVID-19 pandemic added additional stress to already strained budgets. President Joe Biden recently signed into law a $4 billion funding package that specifically supports farmers of color. These funds are in jeopardy because of an ongoing legal dispute that challenges the law’s legality.
Bunch stated, “Professor Derrick Bell, Harvard Law School, once said that the journey to uncover and affirm the heart’s passion is an endless search. I believe that this project is a way in which Prairie View A& M University’s Cooperative Extension Program through the Agriculture and Natural Resources Unit can bridge the economic gap for some of the limited resources producers by providing financial assistance to them.”
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Karen B. Cotton, M.S., M.A.