California Association of Resource Conservation Districts Funds Yuba-Sutter

Specialty Crop Technical Assistance Hub Grant

 The grant project seeks to expand and strengthen the California Farm Demonstration Network, a project partnership that includes California Association of Resource Conservation Districts, the California Department of Food and Agriculture; Natural Resources Conservation Service; University of California at Davis; University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources; and the California Farm Bureau Federation.

 SACRAMENTO, CA, August 17, 2020 – The California Association of Resource Conservation Districts (CARCD) is pleased to announce the award of four Specialty Crop Technical Assistance Hubs grants. Four organizations will receive $35,000 each to create or expand hubs, and provide stipends to partner farmers. These will consist of agricultural technical assistance providers developing a series of farmer-to-farmer demonstration events showcasing the most locally relevant conservation practices. Demonstration events will be structured in a farmer-to-farmer style for knowledge and experience sharing, keeping the farmers’ expertise at the forefront in order to provide trusted and applicable information and peer support to farmers.  While small, the grants will have real impact, helping specialty crop farmers weather challenges of COVID-19 and strengthen the resilience of their farms to an unpredictable future climate.

The Yuba-Sutter Specialty Crop Technical Assistance Hub will be based in Yuba and Sutter Counties, providing services to the entire Northern region. Specialty crop growers in the region will have access to technical assistance for a variety of climate resilience strategies, with special focus for Punjabi speaking growers, a traditionally underserved socially disadvantaged group. Services will also be available in Spanish and English. Specialty crops highlighted will include peaches, prunes, walnuts, almonds, commercial nursery, vegetable seed, processing tomato, and dry beans, among others. Demonstrations will cover compost application, water efficiency, cover crop plantings, hedgerow installation, and whole orchard recycling. Partners in the hub include Sutter County Resource Conservation District, Yuba County Resource Conservation District, and Evans Agricultural Consulting.

Sutter County RCD is looking for specialty crop growers interested in hosting a demonstration event. Host growers will receive a $1000 stipend for participating. For more information, please send an email to scrcdoffice@gmail.com.

The three additional Grantees include the Farmer Veteran Coalition, the Tulare County Farm Bureau, and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. Counties that are involved in these hubs include: Solano, Yolo, Sacramento, Colusa, Yuba, Sutter, Tulare, Kings, Madera, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

“CARCD is proud to expand the California Farm Demonstration Network with this grant targeting our state’s specialty crop farmers,” said Karen Buhr, executive director of CARCD.  “We were thrilled with the response we got when we requested proposals from across the spectrum of agricultural technical assistance providers in the state, not just resource conservation districts. Each proposal demonstrated the commitment to serve farmers in a way that is creative and farmer-led.  It is the farmer-led aspect of these projects that is a priority of the Network and we are happy to facilitate that peer discovery through this funding opportunity.”

The projects are getting underway, and will be completed by the spring of 2022.

CONTACT: 

Simar Bains – Sutter County Resource Conservation District

(530) 844-3364 / simarcsrcd@carcd.org