TRANSITIONING LAND TO A NEW GENERATION: PREPARING TRAINERS TO HELP FACILITATE TRANSFER

By May 27, 2021Classifieds

APPLICATIONS NOW BEING ACCEPTED FOR TRAINERS

Are you currently working with beginning farmers and ranchers (BFRs)?  Are you addressing issues of succession planning and land transfer? Would you like to increase your skills and knowledge and share them with others? If so, consider applying to become a certified trainer.

American Farmland Trust (AFT) is seeking 25 experienced agricultural educators from across the country to serve as trainers and help a diverse new generation secure land and succeed in agriculture.  This new initiative, Transitioning Land to a New Generation will develop a new land transfer training curriculum and trainer network.  The overarching goals of the project are:

  • To ensure a new generation of farmers and ranchers can secure land to support viable agricultural operations.
  • To support an expanding network of skilled professionals to provide training and technical assistance to facilitate farm transitions.

This project builds on AFT’s Farmland for the Next Generation project, which developed the LAT Curriculum and Network. We now are focusing this work on developing tools for communication skills needed during land transfer. To field test, we are looking for agricultural educators who work directly with landowners and land seekers to first be trained in and then deliver the new curriculum to both BFRs and service providers. We will provide stipends to support training and travel time as they learn, pilot and evaluate our new curriculum with the populations of farmers, ranchers and landowners they work with across the country. We hope you will both consider this opportunity for yourself and help us reach agricultural educators in your networks to let them know about this opportunity.

Working as partners with AFT and a highly skilled and diverse team of collaborators, trainers will be trained to deliver the curriculum, pilot it with the audiences they serve, and help us improve it so that it meets the needs of diverse farmer and landowner audiences. This work will occur over two years beginning this summer and continuing through the summer of 2023. Attached is the trainer application announcement which has additional information about how to apply.

Please feel free to contact Megan Faller mfaller@farmland.org for any application questions. 

Transitioning Land to a New Generation is supported by a 3-year Educational Enhancement grant from the USDA BEGINNING FARMER AND RANCHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM, AWARD# 2020-49400-33257