ITHACA, N.Y. — Beginning farmers are increasingly recognized as important agricultural actors in the United States, particularly with the changing demographics of farmers. Consequently, support for prospective and new farmers has increased. However, there is still a substantial knowledge gap regarding beginning farmers’ characteristics, motivations to farm, challenges faced, and information and resource needs, particularly among those who operate small- or medium-scale farms.

In a new Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD) article, “The motivations, challenges and needs of small- and medium-scale beginning farmers in the midwestern United States,” Keri Iles, Rebecca Nixon (corresponding author), Zhao Ma, Kevin Gibson and Tamara Benjamin drew on a survey of beginning farmers in Indiana and highlighted the motivations, challenges and needs of small- and medium-scale beginning farmers in the Midwestern United States.

Key findings

The authors found that small- and medium-scale beginning farmers in Indiana were:

• Motivated by their desire for a farming lifestyle and to support local foods and agroecological farming systems on an agricultural landscape dominated by commodity crops;
• Substantially reliant on off-farm income to support their on-farm activities;
• Challenged by limited access to labor, balancing on-farm and off-farm responsibilities, and finding effective marketing strategies;
• Not well integrated into existing agricultural programs; and
• Heavily reliant on their own internet research and informal interactions with other farmers to learn and obtain help for their farms.

Recommendations for policy, practice and research

This research can help inform agricultural professionals and organizations in their effort to tailor technical assistance, outreach, and other programming to better align with beginning farmers’ motivations and to address their unique needs and challenges. Specifically, this paper highlights the need to offer targeted training in direct marketing and business management that addresses beginning farmers’ needs, which tend to differ from larger-scale commodity producers.

With a majority of small- and medium-scale beginning farmers mostly relying on their own internet research for farming-related information, this paper also highlights the need to ensure that scientifically based information and professional advice are easily searchable online, readily accessible in terms of understandability and usability, and engaging for small- and medium-scale beginning farmers.

Finally, farm visits and other forms of interactions with other farmers were key sources of information and support for the beginning farmers in this study. Thus, Extension and other outreach programs should consider ways to facilitate such opportunities.

To read the full article, click here.

— Keri Iles, Rebecca Nixon, Zhao Ma, Kevin Gibson, and Tamara Benjamin, Purdue University