Strategy Description:

Agriculture is an important niche for the regional economy, and perhaps even more important to the regional culture. The region needs to consider the impacts on agriculture from all other economic activity and identify ways to preserve and strengthen this sector as a viable economic activity as well as a cultural institution. Agriculture must be integrated into the economic mainstream to avoid self-isolation by the farm community.

Key Components:

In the watershed there are at least four primary areas of concern linked to agriculture. Each area presented its own unique problems and creative solutions. The identified areas of agricultural business to explore and assist are:

• Niche Farming – a specific food item, selling to a specific market, such as flowers, organic foods, etc
• Traditional farming – dairy, crops, etc
• Tourism related ag/business- farm stays, farm tours, special events/venues (pumpkin patch, corn maze, etc) (see Strategy 22: Tourism Promotion)
• Home business – which generates supplemental income to allow farmers to continue to farm (see Strategy 20: Entrepreneurial Development)

The re-use of existing buildings (see Strategy 24: Reuse and Redevlopment) might be linked to farm product distribution.

**The Technical Advisory Committee noted the importance of this strategy and recognized that the following tools may not be the appropriate measures. It recommended a continuing process to advance this strategy.

• Develop a local or regional commodity exchange that allows farmers to grow and deliver produce to area consumers on a large scale.

• Explore current national models through the University Agricultural Department, the County Agricultural Extension, Cornell University, and other national rural initiative projects (i.e. New Hampshire Cooks) to determine a variety of models that might work in the watershed.

• Determine the role of leadership for implementation. Potential leaders might include the Grange, Future Farmers of America, county extension, PFA or a new locally managed cooperative. This co-op would increase the role of the local farmer as the middleman, thereby increasing his bottom line.

• Hold a facilitated meeting between potential suppliers and consumers to determine the framework for distribution, specific needs, obstacles, etc.

• Promote Agricultural Alliances.

• Identifying alliance opportunities by working with various groups of farmers and agri-businesses to pinpoint needs.

• Developing inventories of needs that can be shared among members of the agricultural community to solicit providers of solution-oriented services.

• Conducting educational sessions to demonstrate the economics and feasibility of certain types of alliances.

• Bringing together potential players in individual or group sessions to help negotiate agreements.

• Researching the experience of other regions to provide illustrative examples of alliance opportunities, such as cooperative marketing agreements.

• Establish a Revolving Loan Fund.

• Identifying potential beneficiaries of a revolving loan fund including agri-businesses seeking to expand or enhance their operations.

• Documenting financial need and interest in funding that might be available.

• Identifying specific funding sources and prioritizing them by the likelihood of obtaining funding.

• Making application for funding by packaging the individual requests for funding into one comprehensive grant request to establish the program.

• Expand Tax Incentives.

• Meeting with agribusiness prospects to identify their needs and the types of incentives that would cause them to invest in added-value ventures.

• Evaluating comparable programs in other counties, and fashioning a competitive abatement schedule.

• Promoting the program as a specific incentive that makes the region special, selling it to businesses both inside and outside of the county.

• Refocus Agricultural Training.

• Identifying the expanded educational needs of area farmers in the areas of labor management, specialization, etc. by holding a special session with the farm community.

• Developing a new core curriculum of agricultural technical assistance programs under the umbrella of "agricultural economic development" as opposed to yield-improvement based training.

• Supporting vocational agriculture as a high-tech career opportunity.

• Creating opportunities to showcase farming and farm products at various non-agricultural events. Link efforts to farm-related tourism. (See Strategy 22: Tourism Promotion)

Regional Application:

There will be varying levels of interest in and support for agricultural development and diversification among jurisdictions in the region. It will be important, however, that urban as well as rural leaders participate in the strategic thinking needed to support this strategy.

Implementation:

The strategy involves a cross-section of farm and non-farm business and community leaders. Key players/facilitators would include Penn State University, Centre County Planning Office, the state and federal agricultural agents, and the local Granges.

Indicators:

• Number of jobs created in agricultural sectors
• Average agricultural wage of new jobs
• Number of business start-ups (home businesses on farms or tourism related farm businesses)
• Investments in agricultural expansion
• Household income of farm households
• Agricultural productivity

Initial meetings and alliance building would cost little. The development of a commodities exchange could be very expensive – creative grants from state or federal agencies should be explored as well as funding from the Kellogg Foundation.