| PROJECT SUMMARY |
Washington State University, the University of Idaho and the non-profit Rural Roots (the Cultivating Success partnership) offered an educational program to train agricultural producers to manage: 1) Price and market risk, 2) Financial risk, 3) Institutional risk, and 4) Human or personal risk. To achieve our targets, we:
•Identified and evaluated a range of existing curricula on farm business planning.
•Developed a new farm business planning curriculum title "Agricultural Entrepreneurship and Business Planning" to meet the risk management needs of Washington and Idaho farmers and ranchers.
•Marketed and conducted two train-the-trainer workshops to 34 extension educators.
•Supported the instructors in marketing and conducting courses (ten sessions long) that train 250 Washington and Idaho producers to develop and implement farm business plans.
•Conducted outreach on the project at the National SARE conference (summer, ´06) and at the National Small Farms Conference (fall, ´05).
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| NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 125 |
| TOPICS COVERED |
| Insurance products |
| Product and enterprise diversification |
| Market analysis and outlook |
| Marketing strategies, plans and clubs |
| Direct, wholesale, and processing markets |
| Contract production, branded or certified marketing, and value-added enterprises |
| Financial records, analysis, and bench-marking |
| Capital and financial assets |
| Credit |
| Tools for managing legal liability |
| Leases, contracts and negotiation |
| Understanding of economic risks associated with new production technologies |
| Business and strategic planning |
| Interpersonal, family and business relationships |
| Ability to manage changes in policy and regulation |
