Prairie View A&M: 1890s Host Boot Camp to Prepare Farmers for Disasters
From Prairie View A&M …
To prepare historically underserved farmers and ranchers for natural and manmade disasters, the 1890 Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) Advisory Group offered a three-day boot camp for farmers and Cooperative Extension personnel.
The 1890 Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Farm Bootcamp Workshop took place Feb. 7-9 in Atlanta, Georgia. Approximately 50 farmers and Cooperative Extension personnel attended. Participants traveled from states representing the 1890 region.
Fort Valley State University (FVSU) and Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) served as the host institutions for this event. Dr. Noel M. Estwick, assistant professor and research scientist for PVAMU’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR), serves as the principal investigator (PI) of the SARE Research and Education Grant that funded the boot camp. Other partnering institutions of the grant include Florida A&M University(FAMU) (Kimberly Davis), North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT) (Dr. Michelle Eley), Tuskegee University (Dr. Rashidah Farid), and the University of Arkansas at Pine-Bluff (UAPB) (Dr. Henry English/Karen Lee.)
“The purpose of the event was to assemble 1890 Cooperative Extension personnel and farmers and collectively engage them in training by identifying resources, facilitating discussions and engaging them in research-driven activities,” Estwick said. These activities included focus groups and in-depth interviews to identify ways of collectively addressing disaster-related challenges experienced by historically underserved farmers and ranchers.
“Marginalized communities are often disproportionately impacted by disasters and experience challenges, such as limited access to resources. Hence, the research team saw the need to assess the role culture plays in how historically underserved farmers and ranchers prepare for, cope with and respond to disasters,” Estwick said.
Topics discussed during the workshop included crisis communications for disasters, assessing and planning for agricultural risks, mental health, getting the farm ready for disasters, estate planning, and disaster recovery resources for producers and ranchers.
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