Although more than one third of all farmers and ranchers in the U.S. are women, these operators do not access available resources, including agricultural support programs, training, and other business tools, as effectively as their male counterparts. The national Women in Agriculture Learning Network is working to change that by providing information specific to this target group through its website, social media, e-newsletters, and other outreach efforts.

Relevance

The 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture reports that 36% of all farmers and ranchers are female, and 56% of all farms have at least one female decision-maker. The number of U.S. farms with a female principal operator nearly quadrupled over the past four decades, from 5% in 1978 to about 29% in 2017. But women farmers and ranchers encounter many challenges. More than 80% of women-operated farms reported sales and government payments of less than $50,000 according to the USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service. Women operators do not apply for or utilize agricultural support programs as effectively as their male counterparts, and the businesses of many beginning farm and ranch women do not survive the first five years.

Response

The national Women in Agriculture Learning Network, launched in October 2013 with leadership provided by the UVM Women's Agricultural Network (WAgN), is working to enhance opportunities for educators interested in improving, expanding, and starting outreach programs for beginning farm and ranch women. The overarching goal of the initiative is to help women farmers and ranchers across the U.S. meet their business and quality of life goals. One component is a national website (womeninag.extension.org) that provides informational resources and tools geared to topics of high relevance to women farm and ranch operators. The website also includes a national directory of U.S. women in agriculture programs and links to training, curriculum, and research reports to help educators and technical assistance providers develop effective programming.

Results

Outreach efforts, conducted using a combination of e-newsletters and social media posts, have connected over 6,500 people with resources and information. Currently, the Women in Agriculture Learning Network e-newsletter has 1,251 active subscribers. All 50 states and Washington, D.C. are represented on the list. Of the total number of subscribers, 954 people provided information about their occupation. Of those, 368 indicated that they are agricultural educators and technical service providers working for Cooperative Extension Services, nonprofit organizations, land-grant universities, or other institutions of higher education. The balance of subscribers are a mix of farmers, ranchers, landowners, farm employees, and the general public. This list includes 476 women who described themselves as either aspiring or beginning farmers. According to Google Analytics data, since the beginning of 2019, the national website has had 6,586 unique U.S. visitors in 8,211 sessions. About 23% of users were return visitors. Roughly 64% of all visitors use desktop computers to access the site, while 32% use smart phones, and 4% use tablets. Visitors came from all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Page visit data (a total of 20,550 page views) indicates that individuals go to the site to look for information resources and search for programs and opportunities in their area. The most popular pages after the home page are the resource library (womeninag.extension.org/resource-library) with 1,618 page views and the directory of women in ag programs (womeninag.extension.org/women-in-ag-programs) with 1,462 page views. During this past year, U.S. users accessed materials and/or downloaded resources 942 times. This effort was made possible by the USDA NIFA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (Award No. 2014-68006-21873) and gift funding from Agribank and many generous small donors to WAgN. Collaborators included Iowa State University, University of Missouri Extension, Pennsylvania WAgN, the University of Arkansas School of Law, and approximately two dozen farmers, ranchers, and agricultural professionals from around the U.S.