{"id":205889,"date":"2023-10-18T04:51:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T08:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=205889"},"modified":"2023-10-23T08:54:28","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T12:54:28","slug":"ct-farmers-needs-are-changing-and-they-say-uconn-can-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/10\/ct-farmers-needs-are-changing-and-they-say-uconn-can-help\/","title":{"rendered":"CT Farmers\u2019 Needs Are Changing, and They Say UConn Can Help"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study by researchers in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources<\/a> (CAHNR) highlights the current challenges the state\u2019s farmers are facing and how, according to the farmers themselves, CAHNR staff and faculty can help support them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case we were really interested in Connecticut farms and understanding what they need, and specifically what are the things that they need that CAHNR staff and faculty can support,\u201d says Cristina Connolly, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This report was supported through funding from the CAHNR Strategic Vision Award. The report was prepared by Connolly, Professor Rigoberto Lopez, Associate Professor in Residence Emma Bojinova, and undergraduate research assistants Saskia Krebbers and Carolanne Cusack under the umbrella of UConn\u2019s Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy<\/a><\/p>\n

The report updates the findings of a previous survey the Governor\u2019s Council for Agricultural Development conducted in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings have changed a lot since the last report,\u201d says Lopez. \u201cIt was timely to update based on the challenges farmers are facing now.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, climate change was not even mentioned in the 2012 survey, but extreme weather variations are now a top concern according to the new report. As climate change disrupts the patterns of Connecticut\u2019s seasons, farmers are facing significant crop loss from droughts, flooding, extreme heat, and unseasonably warm temperatures followed by frosts.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change is really looming large in a way it does not appear to have been based on the older reports,\u201d Connolly says. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the biggest changes we\u2019ve noticed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study collected survey responses from 59 farmers asking them about what challenges they face, who they reach out to for help, and what services CAHNR could provide that would be most useful. The survey was followed by multiple listening sessions where farmers talked about the challenges they face, and if they felt the survey missed anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, it was the combination of quantitative data and then this contextual qualitative data to help understand the results and make recommendations,\u201d Connolly says.<\/p>\n

Aside from climate change, challenges farmers identified included the high cost of production in Connecticut, trouble finding workers, and difficulty navigating state regulations.<\/p>\n

The main area where farmers indicated they would want support from CAHNR is to act as a \u201cone-stop shop\u201d for navigating regulations and the business side of farming.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can facilitate providing all this aid, because there\u2019s a lot of great programs UConn offers,\u201d Connolly says. \u201cBut most of that is very production-focused, we don\u2019t really have the same thing for business, so we think providing that for business is a big one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another way CAHNR could help farmers, according to the researchers, is by providing more opportunities for undergraduates to learn the skills they need to work on farms through partnerships with local farms.<\/p>\n

The third recommendation in the report is to form an advocacy group to operate on behalf of the state\u2019s farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need that kind of advocacy to promote the interests of farmers at the state or Cabinet level that can address some of these challenges,\u201d Lopez says. \u201cSome of it has been done, and has been done well, but there remain significant challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going forward, the researchers would like to conduct a study that looks specifically at the needs of aquaculture farmers, who were not included in this study.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This work relates to CAHNR\u2019s Strategic Vision area focused on\u00a0<\/em>Ensuring a Vibrant and Sustainable Agricultural Industry and Food Supply.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0<\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on social media<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From climate change to labor shortages and business regulations, there are new challenges facing the state’s agricultural community<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":166651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2297,2224,1715,2304,2076],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-205889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agricultural-resource-economics","category-cahnr","category-community-impact","category-extension","category-research"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-28 11:49:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205889"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206031,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205889\/revisions\/206031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/166651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205889"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=205889"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=205889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}