Clemson awarded $750,000 USDA grant for new farmer program

Published: October 13, 2010

Clemson Public Service and Agriculture image by: Clemson University

COLUMBIA — A statewide multi-agency partnership has received a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support development of future generations of farmers in South Carolina.

The New and Beginning Farmer initiative will help sustain South Carolina’s largest industry and foster development of new and innovative techniques by next-generation farmers.

The program will be led by Clemson University’s R. David Lamie, an associate professor and Extension specialist at the Clemson Institute for Economic and Community Development at the Sandhill Research and Education Center.

Clemson will be assisted by primary partners Lowcountry Local First and the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. The partnership also includes the S.C. Department of Agriculture, S.C. Farm Bureau and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency.

The project’s goal is to help new and beginning farmers be successful, productive and innovative members of their agricultural communities, Lamie said. The program will provide them with the tools, knowledge and skills necessary to be successful entrepreneurs.

“Our goal is to grow sound business managers, environmental stewards and successful marketers of the unique products they create,” Lamie said.

“Perhaps most importantly, we hope our next generation farmers have a sense of pride and enjoy a certain quality of life as a result of their investment and participation in the agricultural community of South Carolina,” he said.

The 2007 S.C. Census of Agriculture states the average age of South Carolina farm operators is 59. Of the 25,867 principal farm operators in the state, only 9,843, or 38 percent, were under the age of 55 and only 2,833, or 11 percent, were under the age of 45.

The New and Beginning Farmer program will include an application process, 40 hours of classroom instruction, site visits to successful farms, entrepreneurship training, participation in statewide agricultural organization meetings, a mentoring program and optional internships.

Hugh Weathers, South Carolina agriculture commissioner, said that agribusiness is the life blood of the state and this new program will compliment existing statewide initiatives.

Such programs include Clemson’s FastTrac small business entrepreneurship training program, the e-commerce MarketMaker program; S.C. Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmers and Ranchers program for 18- to 35-year-olds; and the S.C. Department of Agriculture’s Small Farms program and Certified South Carolina Grown comprehensive statewide branding and marketing initiative.

A 2008 report compiled for the Palmetto Agribusiness Council found that South Carolina’s agribusiness is the state’s largest industry cluster, contributing nearly 200,000 jobs and a $34 billion economic impact each year.

South Carolina has a strong agribusiness sector, Weathers said, and it is growing.

“The future of agriculture in South Carolina lies with new and young farmers,” Weathers said. “It’s vital we do everything we can to provide the future agribusiness leaders of our state every advantage to succeed and prosper.”

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This project was supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA Grant No. 2010-03113.