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Assessing and Meeting the Needs of Alabama Women in Agriculture

E'licia Chaverest

Summary

Of all the 45,126 farms in Alabama, 15,088 farms covering 2.43 million acres are operated by women (Census of Agriculture, 2002). Over 4,800 operations covering a total of 746,669 acres have women as principal operators. Five hundred and eighty four (584) operators are part-owners while only 143 women operate their farms as tenants, implying that the majority of the women are fully involved in production agriculture and treat it as their business of employment. In the US and during the last five years, the number of women-owned, co-owned and co-operated/managed farms increased by 14 percent. Similarly, since 1992, farms operated by women in Alabama have increased by almost 22 percent. These statistics reveal the urgent need to pay special attention to the plight of women involved in agriculture. In 2004 and through funding from USDA's Risk Management Agency, the Small Farms Research Center at Alabama A&M University initiated a project aimed at addressing issues of women engaged in agriculture. The overall goal is to assist women and their families to become more involved in entrepreneurial decisions and integrating farm management tools and strategies into their production and marketing decisions. This poster will present the mission and a detailed focus of our project. It will present and share with the audience the results of the needs assessment survey of 250 Alabama women conducted in 2004, prior to the inception of the project. Even though these results are based on an Alabama audience, they certainly should be of interest to administrators, policy makers and the general public interested in the plight of women involved in production agriculture

Details

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