| The workshop included sessions in farm management and planning, crop insurance, financing small farm operations, agro-forestry, organic crop production practices and the 2002 Farm Bill. While all sessions were informative, farmers on St. Thomas said they learned most from the sessions on marketing and forming cooperatives. Farmers on St. Croix enjoyed the sessions on organic farming and financing a farm operation along with the various panel discussions. There were also several panel discussions. Participants learned about services like low interest loans and cost-sharing initiatives. Day two of the workshop included seminars in the morning and a field trip in the afternoon, when farming concepts and practices were highlighted.
At the field trip to farms in Estate Bordeaux on St. Thomas presenters were amazed at the work necessary to make the land productive.
"I've never seen farms like these and I've been all over the world," said Ben Burkett, president of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. "I'm amazed at the labor one has to put in," Burkett said, looking at the terracing at Charles Leonard's farm.
On St. Croix participants visited the research projects at the Agricultural Experiment Station. They learned about papaya and passion fruit crops at the biotechnology project; grasses and legumes at the agronomy project; sheep and aquaponics at animal science project; and the model farm, a federally funded project that demonstrates how a family of three can successfully farm five acres profitably. They also visited Winsor Dairy Farm, Schuster's Sheep Farm, Lemuel Smithen's Farm and the Bethlehem Ruins. "It was a full day, but no one complained," said Stafford Crossman, Cooperative Extension program supervisor.
Some of the problems farmers spoke about included a lack of government-issued leases, which disqualifies farmers for some USDA programs. They also discussed USDA benefits that do not address the needs of insular farmers who farm smaller plots of land than their U.S. counterparts.
Fifty-two farmers registered for the workshop on St. Thomas and 112 registered on St. Croix.
Dr. Louis Petersen, district supervisor of UVI's Cooperative Extension Service (UVI-CES), said that while turnout was good, dialogue among the farmers was even better. "The interaction, more than the turnout, was dynamic," Petersen said.
Sponsors of the workshop were UVI-CES, USDA, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA-Forest Service, the V.I. Resource Conservation and Development Council and the V.I. Department of Agriculture.
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