Mentorship, Education, and Farmer Training

There are lots of opportunities for ongoing education and training for producers at all stages of their career.

On-farm Apprenticeships & Mentorship Programs:

For beginning farmers and ranchers it can be extremely valuable to work with experienced producers and their are a number of programs designed to facilitate this. Many are free or low cost and some are even paid internships.

• Bernalillo County Grow the Growers program is a multistage program to help new farmers gain experience and access to land/technical assistance.
• The Quivira Coalition’s New Agrarian Program offers an 8-month fully immersive apprenticeship program for livestock producers. 
• Sostenga! is a program of Northern NM Community College in Espanola, NM that offers classes and training in sustainable agriculture.
• Khalsa Family Farms offers a hands-on learning program in Espanola, NM.
• NCAT has a great list of internship opportunities by state
  https://attra.ncat.org/internships/
• Farmer in training program & farmer incubator program in SW Colorado
  https://www.fortlewis.edu/the-old-fort/learn/farmers-in-training
• Through the Agricultural Workforce Development Program, NMSU can cover 50% of the cost of a farm or ranch hiring an intern. 
• This is another list of farm incubator and apprenticeship programs around the country.
• WWOOF is a database of hands-on farming experience in exchange for accomodations and meals
• The Rodale Institute offers stipend and housing for 9 months of in person training in Pennsylvania. 

Bilingual and culturally rooted training options:

• Bidii Baby Foods/Farmer-In-REZidence program specifically designed to support young (under age 30), beginner Indigenous farmers start and sustain successful agribusinesses on Tribal Trust Lands. Shiprock, NM
  https://www.bidiibabyfoods.org/farmer-in-rezidencetm
• Center for Southwest Culture farmer training program, CODECE, is a long-term farmer training program for Indigenous and Mexicano / Chicano people in New Mexico who are interested in farming and potentially starting their own business.
  https://www.centerofsouthwestculture.org/en/codece-info
• The NM Acequia Association hosts Los Sembradores, a culturally rooted farmer training program for Northern New Mexicans.
• The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center hosts Beginner Farmer Trainings which teach both modern and traditional agricultural practices.
• This is a guide to farming on tribal lands and includes additional resources on training opportunities in New Mexico.

Conferences

Farming conferences offer a wealth of information and allows for farmer to farmer networking. Led by boots on the ground farmers as well as educational institutions from around the country, conferences can be a good way to gain knowledge about a host of different farming topics. Meeting, connecting, and learning from fellow farmers from all walks of life and experiences to discuss ideas, successes, and struggles without judgement is also an invaluable benefit. Often scheduled during the off season, these conferences are sources of inspiration and encouragement for the season ahead. Here are a couple of currently running coferences:

• The EcoFarm Conference one of the largest and longest-running organic farming conferences with a mostly broad range of topics and (note some topics specific to California like water issues or funding sources). 
• There’s also Marbleseed’s Organic Farming Conference which is a long-running, organic farming conference located in the midwest.

Online Farmer Training Courses

If you’re someone that needs more step-by-step training, there are a number of online training courses with varying levels of cost and time commitment. Do note know that these courses are not region specific, and as you know, NM has very specific growing challenges, so there may be some things in these courses that don’t apply in NM.

The Market Gardener offers a variety of online courses : https://themarketgardener.com/courses/

New Entry Sustainable Farming Project is out of Tufts University and has a variety of different online courses. https://nesfp.nutrition.tufts.edu/farmer-training.

Cornell University has a variety of 6-8 online courses, many of which can be taken in Spanish. https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/online-courses/#browse

The Organic Farming Research Farming Foundation offers free online beginning farmer training for organic specialty crop farmers & a free online course about the principles of soil health; Plus other resources in video and print.

Podcasts

There are a number of great podcasts that cover issues of relevance for farmers. 

• Podcast: Pathways to Resilience by the Quivira Coalition
• Podcast: Farm Small Farm Smart
• Podcast: The Urban Farm Podcast
• Podcast: Farmer to Farmer w/ Chris Blanchard

Written Resources

• ATTRA’s Sustainable Agriculture website has a ton of written resources on a wide variety of sustainable agriculture topics.
• Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (Western SARE) has a ton of publications on various sustainable agriculture topics. Note: to get a topic list you can browse, hover over the “Resources and Learning” Tab.
• Sustainable Agriculture Education Association site with links to other sites offering job positions/apprenticeships/internships in sustainable ag.
• Beginning Farmer Tutorials
• NMSU Extension gardening webinar series