Land
- The Center for Rural Affair’s Land Link program serves to increase opportunities for beginning farmers while encouraging good stewardship. Computer data base matching and consulting services bring beginning farmers and landowners together. Retirement planning, beginning farmer financing, farm business, and environmental assessment information is used to assist in transferring family operations to a new generation of farmers and ranchers.
- Any veterans can participate in FarmLink’s aspiring farmer programs.
- To discuss land links (lease or purchase) this means filling out a short questionnaire, sending it in, then discussing any of the land opportunities that our listed on our website. The hitch for linking someone with a retiring farmer or landowner is that we tend to work with people who have some farming experience already. ALBA has a program tailored more for folks with no farming experience. When people come to FarmLink with no farming experience, we encourage them to look into apprentice or educational programs. If there were vets coming from a family farm background or with other farm experience, they would be ready for our linking program. We can also work with any vets who need individual assistance in California on any aspects of land tenure, farm business planning and farm financing.
- 2) We could do an email out to landowners and farmers in our database to determine if any of them would be specifically interested in working with vets in some capacity.
- 3) To the extent that we can raise money to fund additional Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), we can earmark them specifically for vets who are starting their own small farms. This is the program where the beginning farmer puts $100 a month in a bank account and we match it with $300 a month of grant money. At the end of two years, the participant has $9,600 to put towards a farm asset such as a tractor, fencing or irrigation infrastructure. During the two years the participant attends two or three financial literacy type workshops (on business planning, credit, tax management or financing) and puts together a business plan and cash flow projection. (CA FarmLink’s IDA program is the first in the nation specifically serving small farmers). We need $7,200 for each IDA account plus 25% for program support. So it would cost about $18,000 for two accounts. WE have been able to raise funds for about 6 or 7 new applicants each year, for which we have been receiving 25 to 50 applications per year. It is a competitive program, but if we can raise money specifically for vets, that pool of funds would be earmarked for vets only.
- 4) We can outreach to any vets groups about all of FarmLinks programs by getting vet group leaders on our email list, or other means as necessary.
![Farmers, Vets Meet in a Barn](http://www.farmvetco.org/"wp-content/uploads//2009/07/0463.JPG)
![Shooting Stars](http://www.farmvetco.org/"wp-content/uploads//2009/07/MattLillieCorn2.JPG)
![Purple Heart, Blue Berries](http://www.farmvetco.org/"wp-content/uploads//2009/07/New-blueberry-pic14-300x225.jpg)
