|
 |
 |
|
Combining classroom training
– in agronomy, organic practices, marketing and finance
– with field training over three years has created new,
skilled farmers in California’s Salinas Valley.
–
Photo by Jerry DeWitt |
 |
In Guerrero, Mexico, Maria
Inez Catalan helped her parents on the family farm. When she immigrated
to the United States in 1986, Catalan tended broccoli and carrots as a
field laborer, helping one of California’s big farms produce huge
quantities of vegetables.
Catalan wanted to work the
land, but she sought to have more control over how the crops were raised
and the land was treated. Assessing herself, with limited education and
English skills, but no shortage of energy, Catalan decided to enroll in
a small Salinas Valley program at the Rural Development Center (RDC) that
provides agricultural training to Spanish-speaking immigrants with limited
means.
The Programa Educativo para
Pequenos Agricultores (Small Farmer Education Program) or PEPA combines
classroom training in agronomy, organic farming practices and business
management with practical field work actually raising a market crop. Upon
completion of the free, five-month program, students can opt to farm a
small parcel from the Rural Development Center for up to three years,
applying what they’ve learned and gaining a toe-hold in the agricultural
industry.
The Center, part of the
nonprofit Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), aims
to help immigrants graduate from low-paying, low-satisfaction jobs to
independent farming. Classes are held in the evenings and on weekends
to accommodate student work schedules. “They don’t have anything
to start out with,” said Brett Melone, ALBA executive director, “but
they want to start their own businesses and become more independent, which
is the goal of the program.”
ALBA also runs a farmer
training center, where a demonstration farm promotes conservation by showing
environmentally sound practices folded into an economically successful
operation. Melone and others hope to enlist supporters from urban areas,
particularly around the subject of watershed restoration.
To be received into the
small farmer education program, applicants must have some farming experience
and “need to be dedicated to the idea of a more sustainable agriculture,”
Melone said. “They also must recognize the importance of family farming.”
The RDC adopted sustainable
agriculture principles in its classes in the early 1990s, partly as a
result of a SARE grant with the University of California at Berkeley that
encouraged alternative farming practices such as soil-building with cover
crops and compost, and biological and cultural practices to combat pests.
After the SARE project, use of cover crops at the RDC expanded from near
zero to nearly 100 percent.
Catalan did well at RDC,
where she took the three-year apprenticeship and grew a diverse assortment
of annual vegetables. She also gained valuable experience direct-marketing
her fruitful harvest: jicama, radishes, garbanzo and fava beans, tomatillos,
broccoli, cilantro and lettuce greens, among other things. Catalan channeled
her organizing skills into diverse projects: helping set up a community
garden for Salinas residents and running a community supported agriculture
project with other RDC graduates that serves residents in Monterey, Fort
Ord and Salinas. Perhaps most important, Catlan co-founded a cooperative
with fellow students.
The Asociacion Mercado Organica
(AMO) co-op, comprised of 11 RDC graduates, leases 60 acres near the town
of Hollister. There, each farmer tends about five acres and grows organic
vegetables to sell –jointly, under the AMO label – at a premium.
They share a new tractor and will soon own a refrigerated delivery truck.
Catalan credits the PEPA
program for solidifying her decision to enter farming for herself. “It
offered educational opportunities in many different areas: sales, bookkeeping,
certification, production requirements, fertility management and community-building,”
she said through an interpreter. “They taught me to put insectory
plants near crops to attract beneficial insects and rotate crops to avoid
disease buildup in the soil.”
She sells vegetables to
local farmers markets and a direct-to-consumer retailer. After years of
working for others, she relishes her hard-won independence.
Catalan is a model graduate
of PEPA, although with an average of 15 graduates a year since 1985, the
program boasts some 400 success stories. Many farmers from the primarily
Latino community are interested in RDC; as many as 80 percent speak only
Spanish and therefore lack access to information. Many also have low incomes
and little access to credit or farm equipment. At RDC, farm equipment
is available to all on a cooperative basis, and many of the lessons pertain
to finances, record-keeping and organic certification processes.
“They are limited-resource
farmers with language issues, so government programs don’t necessarily
reach them,” Melone said. “They may not be getting the information
they need to make intelligent land management decisions and apply them
to conservation farm practices.”
Catalan and her four children
spend about 12 hours a day in the field, tending her piece of the AMO
land and a five-acre piece leased by one of her sons.
“My experience has been that if you want to get ahead, the U.S.
offers the possibility,” she said. “You just have to be
prepared to give it all your effort.”
|
|
 |
Audience
Immigrants from Mexico and Central America |
|
Educating Team
Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA)’s
Rural Development Center, Salinas, California
www.albefarmers.org
|
|
Challenges Addressed
Limited access to capital or equipment
Language barrier
Limited time |
|
Connection Strategies
Advertising in Spanish language media
Flyers
Word of mouth |
|
Teaching Methods
Classroom lessons plus field experience
Tours with local farmers
Bilingual teachers
Night and weekend classes |
|
Next profile
 Top
|
