Virginia State University’s Small Farm Outreach Program Bridges the Gap for Hispanic Farmer
Leonel Castillo, far left, is joined by Hispanic farmers at the 2022 Small Farm Outreach Program’s annual conference in Newport News, Virginia.
As the Commonwealth of Virginia welcomes increasing numbers of residents of diverse ethnicities, the Hispanic population in particular continues to soar—and so do their needs for Extension services.
This population now comprises nearly 11% of the state's total population, a significant increase from 8% a decade ago. Of this population, there are those who want to start their own farm enterprises. To assist them, the Small Farm Outreach Program (SFOP), part of the Virginia Cooperative Extension program at Virginia State University, relies heavily on Leonel Castillo, its Hispanic outreach coordinator.
“The Hispanic farmers I work with in Virginia have different beginnings,” said Castillo.
Some came to Virginia as farm workers, ranchers or construction workers, while others had married women who loved gardening. Some started small farms as an investment after helping their wives grow the family garden. Others bought produce and resold it for a profit before starting a farm operation. Whether or not they already had farming and ranching experience, they all had the desire to farm.
Most of these Hispanic farmers have a rich and diverse background in farming but often lack the resources to succeed in some part due to language barriers. SFOP helps bridge the gap so Hispanic farmers can thrive.
“Access. Access to land and access to capital. The communication barrier is definitely a unique challenge that they would face. Furthermore, not all individuals have the courage to get involved with the federal programs or the lending programs,” said assistant director, Alston Hilliard.
Castillo is building relationships and providing information in Spanish to help address those barriers in communication, access to capital and access to land, and to build trust. He explains that only a couple of Hispanic farmers own small plots of land, and most don’t know about the USDA and VDACS benefits available to them.
“Most don’t care to get involved with government agencies, but a few do, especially after learning how the system works through our program,” said Castillo.
SFOP educates and empowers small, limited-resource, historically underserved, and veteran farmers and ranchers to own, operate and sustain farms and ranches independently by offering several important workshops to beginner farmers. SFOP is a tremendous resource for Hispanic farmers and underserved minorities. Currently, SFOP provides educational programming in 74 Virginia counties like the Beginning Farmer Orientation course, offered monthly, the Whole Farm Planning workshop, Financial Management workshop, and a Farm Taxes workshop, which Castillo said have been eye-openers for Hispanic farmers.
“Our new farmer orientation class is important,” said Castillo. “Most accountants are not familiar with filing farm taxes and end up filing their taxes as individual personal income instead of under the farming operation as an entity.”
Hilliard explained that acquiring a farm number is crucial. It enables full access to USDA and VDACS programs and resources.
“Leonel is a tremendous asset to our team in terms of both his farming skills and his native understanding of Latino culture and the Spanish language,” said Hilliard. “He also assists with the translation of the SFOP newsletter from English to Spanish. He’s been able to get them involved with programs such as farm loans, taxes, insurance, crop insurance, conservation programs, and developing marketing plans.”
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