Skills for Building Farmer Networks for Conservation
This curriculum is designed to empower farmers to be peer leaders and build local networks by bolstering their confidence and capacities to engage other farmers about soil health and conservation.
The target audience for a training based on this curriculum is agricultural producers of any commodity who are interested in being involved in farmer-led conservation efforts. The producers do not need to self-identify as leaders but should demonstrate a willingness to talk with other farmers about conservation practices.
The target users of this curriculum – i.e., who would deliver the training – includes conservation and/or agricultural professionals who support farmer-led conservation efforts, such as from university Extension, soil and water conservation districts, county conservation departments, and NGOs.
This curriculum is based on research about the core competencies (i.e., critical knowledge and skills) farmers need to be successful peer leaders in conservation. The competencies covered include the following:
- watershed literacy
- communication skills (storytelling, messaging, active listening)
- relationship building
Potential Curriculum Uses
This curriculum is intended to build farmer leadership in ways such as the following:
- Kickstart the formation of a new farmer-led conservation group or network
- Help an existing farmer-led conservation group build their leadership skills
- Help an existing farmer-led conservation group recruit more local producers to be involved
- Help an existing farmer-led conservation group pass the leadership baton onto other members
- Build confidence and capacity among farmers in your community to be peer leaders in conservation, even if forming a group is not a goal
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of a training based on this curriculum, participating farmers will exhibit the following:
- Increased awareness of the ways farmers can be leaders in conservation and watershed management, particularly among their peers
- Increased confidence in communicating about conservation with other farmers
- Improved storytelling and listening skills that can help them encourage other farmers to consider and/or adopt conservation practices
- Improved ability to build trusted relationships with local farmers around conservation
- Expanded social networks that support their conservation leadership journeys
Curriculum Components
The curriculum package includes the following and can be downloaded at the button at the top of this page:
- Facilitator’s Guide with lesson plans.
- Participant’s Guide: A customizable Word document you can print off and hand out to participants.
- Annotated, customizable slide decks for each module.
- Quick Reads booklet: Short, blog post–style articles covering instructional content.
- Quick Listens: Short podcasts covering instructional content.
- Groundwork Activities: A collection of activities participants can do at home to deepen their learning.
This curriculum was developed and piloted through a collaboration of land-grant university research and extension professionals and local partners from the following institutions: University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Purdue University, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, and the Tippecanoe County Soil & Water Conservation District.
This curriculum was developed under Assistance Agreement No. 01D00921 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension. It has not been formally reviewed by EPA. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Agency. EPA does not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication.