Multifunctional agriculture brings new opportunities to area farms
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Farms around the region can be found partnering with area caterers to host farm dinners and partnering with tour companies to create farm stays. Some farms are including seasonal corn mazes as an additional enterprise to their production, and others are collaborating with home care service providers, such as A Plus Health Care in Kalispell, to create meaningful opportunities in the community for seniors and people with disabilities.
These farm based day programs, also known as “care farms,” are one of many innovative business strategies that will be presented in the course entitled Multifunctional Agriculture: Creating New Markets for Your Business.
The Community Food and Agriculture Coalition and Lake County Community Development are excited to be offering a course on Multifunctional Agriculture in the Mission Valley beginning Jan. 9, 2014.
The course will present a variety of proven multifunctional farm examples, assist course participants with clarifying their vision and developing a plan, and connect participants to resources in the region to grow their enterprises.
This is the second time this course has been offered in Montana. Last February the course was piloted with great success in the Flathead Valley when 22 farmers and ranchers took the course.
Many of these farms expanded their services to include farm dinners and tours, new value added products for the regional market and recreational day activities, such as a corn maze and a farm based trap and skeet facility.
Maarten Fischer, who for 12 years was at the forefront of developing multifunctional agriculture in the Netherlands and Europe, instructed the pilot course in the Flathead Valley.
According to Fischer, “A farm can be a great place for people to visit and enjoy, while earning the farmer or rancher additional income. Opportunities may include pristine orchard campgrounds, bed and breakfasts, farmers’ golf locations, farm shops, child care farms and education farms, among others.”
Fischer has been working for A Plus Healthcare in Kalispell to organize care farms in the Flathead and Mission Valley. This past summer the program was piloted on four farms that served 12 clients. The program has now expanded to seven farms and ranches in the Flathead and Polson area that provide safe and meaningful farm based experiences to over 50 clients. These clients include seniors who suffer from isolation, depression and physical inactivity, and people with mental health issues, developmental disabilities and people with disabilities that are working with vocational rehabilitation to gain employment.
The course, Multifunctional Agriculture: Creating New Markets for Your Business, will be held in 4 sessions over a period of 5 weeks in January-February 2014. Each session will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at different locations in the Mission Valley.
The registration fee of $100 will include lunches. The first session will be held on Jan. 9, 2014.
For more information or to register, contact the organizer: Bonnie Buckingham, Community Food and Agriculture Coalition, 406-880-0543, bonnie@missoulacfac.org. For more information about Multifunctional Agriculture and the care farm programs, contact Maarten Fischer at 406-260-7840 or mfischer@aplushc.com.
