116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Iowa initiatives promised $4.3 million to make farming more accessible for underserved producers
The funding is part of $300 million from a USDA program intended to support underserved producers and landowners.
Sep. 5, 2023 5:30 am, Updated: Sep. 5, 2023 9:39 am
Growing up in the Congo, Kisonia Mafuta rarely bought food from the market. Instead, her family relied on their half-acre garden, where they raised beans, potatoes, corn and other vegetables.
Mafuta moved to the U.S. in 2010 and to Iowa in 2016, where she wanted to establish her own garden. She started with some Cedar Rapids community garden plots and wanted to expand her production. But she couldn’t find land to buy.
“If you need something bigger, you won't get it,” Mafuta, 40, said. “We don't know where to knock. And when you're going to buy something, land is too expensive.”
The average value Iowa farmland jumped 17 percent last year to a record-setting $11,400 per acre. Around 99 percent of the state’s producers identify as white, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture. The Gazette has reported that underrepresented producers — like Black, immigrant and refugee farmers — don’t have the same access or resources to succeed.
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its selection of 50 projects for intended award through the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program. Funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, the program will distribute around $300 million to projects that work with underserved producers and landowners on items like farm ownership opportunities, land succession and agricultural business planning.
Two initiatives led by Iowa organizations are slated to receive a collective $4.3 million for their efforts to improve land and capital accessibility in the state.
New Century Farm Fellowship
The first initiative is led by Iowa Valley Resource Conservation & Development. The Amana-based nonprofit should receive about $2.5 million for two concurrent projects with its partners: Feed Iowa First, Lutheran Services in Iowa’s Des Moines-based Global Greens Farm and Waterloo-based We Arose Co-op.
Part of the funding will establish the New Century Farm Fellowship, a two-year program at the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm supporting beginning farmers who are people of color.
Participants will be paid as full-time employees with benefits while they learn the ins and outs of farming, said Iowa Valley RC&D Executive Director Jason Grimm. The program is aiming to hire 15 participants over the next five years. The funds also will cover more staff that will provide one-on-one assistance with the beginning farmers.
The first year of the fellowship will be intensive farm and livestock training within the Grow: Johnson County program. In the second year, participants will start their own enterprise with the resources, tools, equipment and guidance of the partner organizations.
“We can help them either research and develop a business plan focusing on a specific market, or we can help them find a buyer of a product that they're wanting to grow,” Grimm said.
Simultaneously, Feed Iowa First will be expanding its three-year Equitable Land Access program in Cedar Rapids that helps skilled immigrant farmers transition to sustainable agriculture in the U.S. The funding will help increase staff capacity and allow more training opportunities for participants.
In the first year, participants will set up their farming businesses, obtain certifications and start working on their fields. In the second year, they’ll start meeting with potential landowners and learning about rental contracts. By year three, they’ll be more acclimated to climate stressors and can start looking for their own plots using their newfound knowledge.
“These are big gaps and big jumps that we have to make in the coming years,” said Feed Iowa First executive director Emmaly Renshaw. “We do that by just linking arms and sharing information and resources.” The program is hosting a field day Sept. 8 from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at 6945 Lakeside Rd. in Marion to showcase this year’s production so far.
Along with their complementary programs, the partners also aim to plan regional activities in Eastern Iowa, like workshops or meet and greets with businesses. They will organize USDA office visits in 20 counties over the five-year project, aiming for 200 farmers to attend in total.
“A lot of the farmers that we're all working with have never even heard of USDA,” Grimm said. “Our goal is to help build this bridge with USDA that'll inform them about their needs... That can make these programs better or more accessible to farmers.”
SILT initiative
Sustainable Iowa Land Trust is the lead applicant for the second approved project, which will be one of the organization’s first projects to specifically focus on underrepresented communities, said executive director Breanna Horsey.
SILT and its partners — which are Global Greens, We Arose Cooperative and Feed Iowa First — will receive $1.8 million over five years for their efforts to navigate financial assistance programs and tackle high land costs.
The project will start by determining the needs of underrepresented farmers in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Des Moines — three Iowa cities with large populations of people of color, Latino, immigrant, refugee and other underrepresented individuals. Such farmers will be invited into the project as participants or board members.
Then, the project partners will work with other nonprofits and financial institutions that are assisting farmers — like the Drake Agricultural Law Center — for help designing education materials. SILT is planning to host in-person and online training modules that will teach farmers how to apply for federal grant programs, Horsey said.
The completed online modules will be published on partner websites in other languages so farmers can be educated about the financing process, how it works and its benefits to their businesses.
“The farmer will be involved in each step of the process,” Horsey said. “They'll help design the project from the very beginning so the partners can better assess the needs of each community and tailor the materials to meet them.”
Farm business navigators will be deployed to each target community to mentor the participants. SILT will simultaneously be searching for affordable farmland near all three communities and talking with potential donors.
SILT hopes to enroll 150 farmers in USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service programs; 20 in Farm Service Agency farm loan program; 100 in Rural Development loan or grant programs; and 50 in other programs and services administered by USDA.
It also plans to maintain relationships with those individuals through annual meetings to ensure their continued growth.
“If you don't already have your foot in the door or know someone, then it's very hard to gain access,” Horsey said. “This is to establish a foundation that we hope will continue and that we can add to and that we can alter to fit the needs of our constituents for decades.”
Next steps
When he was 8 years old, Guy Ngoma had to walk 20 miles to help tend to his family’s fields in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He grew up to raise his own big garden there with his own family.
Now, at 50 years old, he walks between rows of his Cedar Rapids garden, pointing out potato and tomato plants that he and his six children carefully tend to. It’s his first time planting in the U.S. after moving to Iowa in 2017 — and it’s only possible because of Feed Iowa First.
“They will be helping me to find a good space where I can make a big, big (garden) like in Africa,” Ngoma said. He hopes to get 28 acres of his own land one day to grow culturally relevant African food for the community. “Americans don’t know this food. We need just everyday African people to buy (it).”
Ngoma and Mafuta are both part of Feed Iowa First’s Equitable Land Access program. More funding means more opportunities for more underserved producers to conquer land accessibility issues in Iowa. The USDA is working with the selected organizations to finalize the awards in the coming months.
The National Young Farmers Coalition, a nonprofit working to improve American food and farm systems, is looking for more: The group wants funding for land accessibility initiatives to be integrated into the 2023 Farm Bill for long-term funding.
In June, U.S. House representatives introduced the Increasing Land Access, Security and Opportunities Act to expand the USDA program, authorizing funding at $100 million per year for the next five years and improving pathways for funding to reach young and beginning farmers. U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, of Bondurant, is a co-sponsor of the bill.
The U.S. Senate is currently working on its own version of the bill, said Grimm, who is on the board of the National Young Farmers Coalition.
“There's a lot of applications that are submitted that didn't get awarded that were probably just as deserving as we are, so that would allow others to apply for the future,” he said.
Guy Ngoma, an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo, tends to his vegetable garden on Friday, July 21, 2023, at the Feed Iowa First urban farm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The nonprofit Feed Iowa First has received USDA grant funding through their partner organizations, SILT and Iowa Valley RC&D, for their land accessibility programs. These programs, which Guy and his family participate in, aim to improve land accessibility for farming for underserved communities, (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)
Guy Ngoma, an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo, tends to his vegetable garden on Friday, July 21, 2023, at the Feed Iowa First urban farm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The nonprofit Feed Iowa First has received USDA grant funding through their partner organizations, SILT and Iowa Valley RC&D, for their land accessibility programs. These programs, which Guy and his family participate in, aim to improve land accessibility for farming for underserved communities, (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)
A metal garden decoration catches rays of light on Friday, July 21, 2023, at the Feed Iowa First urban farm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The nonprofit Feed Iowa First has received USDA grant funding through their partner organizations, SILT and Iowa Valley RC&D, for their land accessibility programs. These programs, which Guy and his family participate in, aim to improve land accessibility for farming for underserved communities, (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)
Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.
Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com
Daily Newsletters