Osei Yeboah, Ph.D.
Osei Yeboah, Ph.D., a professor of agribusiness and international trade at North Carolina A&T State University, recently received a three-year, $704,855 grant from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Yeboah, the principal investigator on the project, will work with colleagues from A&T and Emory University in Atlanta.
"Our intent is to provide beginning farmers and ranchers the tools and all the basic training they will need, especially to participate in government programs such as USDA FSA (Farm Service Agency) loans that help farmers and ranchers get the financing they need to maintain or start a farm,” Yeboah said. “A lot of them face a lot of barriers, especially when it comes to access to credit to own their own farm or ranch or buy capital equipment.”
Yeboah and his team will provide technical training through workshops, conferences and on-farm demonstrations on several broad topics, including small ruminant and specialty crop production, soil and water management practices, climate-smart agriculture innovations, business and financial management, agricultural entrepreneurship, digital technologies and direct marketing strategies.
These outreach assistance efforts will be aimed at beginning farmers, ranchers and veterans and other socially disadvantaged agricultural producers in North Carolina and Georgia. Yeboah said he expects the project to reach more than 100 farmers, ranchers and veterans each year for three years. USDA defines beginning farmers and ranchers as those who have operated a farm or ranch for less than 10 years.
This project is designed to help farmers and ranchers improve their day-to-day agricultural knowledge and skills, Yeboah said. But instruction in business, finance, marketing and computer skills is a crucial component of this initiative. Yeboah said many beginning farmers and ranchers struggle to keep up with the business side of their operation. Without complete and accurate record keeping, they often have trouble securing credit to improve their farm or ranch and cannot qualify for many USDA programs.
“At the end of the day, they need to run their farms and ranches as a business,” said Yeboah, a faculty member of the college since 2003. “Farmers and ranchers used to do this as a hobby, but things have changed. We’re now in a global market competition from imports abroad. If you’re not able to operate your farm or ranch efficiently, you’ll be under water.”
Assisting on this project from A&T are Paula E. Faulkner, Ph.D., a professor of agricultural education; Kingsley Agiliga Ekwemalor, Ph.D., a teaching assistant professor of animal sciences; Godfrey Gayle, Ph.D., a professor emeritus of biological engineering; Biswanath Dari, Ph.D., an agriculture and natural resources specialist with Cooperative Extension at A&T; and Ph.D. candidate Victoria Tanoh, who is pursuing a doctorate in applied data analytics. Other project partners are the N.C. Assistive Technology Program, a state and federally funded program that provides assistive technology services to people across the state; and the Annette Stevenson Consulting Group, a veteran-led organization.
Funding for this project comes from NIFA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. NIFA announced in November that it had awarded nearly $24 million to 45 organizations and institutions that teach and train beginning farmers and ranchers.
