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Limited Resource, Minority, and Beginning Farmers and Rancher Maps
 

Limited Resource, Minority, and Beginning Farmers and Rancher MapThe NRCS East National Technology Support Center (ENTSC) Social Sciences Team and the National Resources Inventory and Analysis Division have created a series of national maps that illustrate geographical locations of Limited Resource Farmers and Ranchers (LRFs), minority farmers, and beginning farmers by State, county, and hydrological unit. This team also developed an index characterizing social capital (defined below) for these same geographical areas.

Social Capital Index

The definitions used for the maps are based on the percent of the population 18 and over in poverty applied to the estimated number of farm operators on farms with sales less than $100,000. The number of operators on farms with sales less than $100,000 was estimated using the percent of farms with sales less than $100,000 applied to the total number of operators. The estimated number of limited resource farmers for the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, is 311,718.
 

The NRCS 2005 definition of a LRF is:
(1) a person with direct or indirect gross farm sales not more than $106,400 in each of the previous two years; and (2) a person with a total household income at or below the national poverty level for a family of four or less than 50 percent of county median household income in each of the previous two years. Not only are the U.S. Census Bureau data categories different than the above definition, but census data is typically years behind the current year. The latest agricultural census was published in 2002 and the general population Census in 2000. Consequently, the maps displaying limited resource farmers should be considered an estimate.

Social capital is defined as the capability of a population to address resource concerns. To represent this concept, an index from 1 through 7, with 1 indicating “low” social capital and 7 indicating “high” social capital was created. The social capital index is comprised of six individual indexes: acres rented, education, farm size, gross farm sales, household income, and infant mortality. Counties, 8-digit hydrological units and the 2004 and 2005 watersheds in the Conservation Security Program are displayed.

Beginning farmers are defined as those people who have been farming at their current farm for less than 10 years. We used the National Agricultural Statistical Service’s census definition to identify minority farmers.

Access the maps at an FTP site, click on Limited Resource Farmers, Social Capital Index, or Beginning Farmers. We recommend saving the image files to your local computer or to a peripheral device (e.g., thumb drive) to facilitate using your computer imaging software for viewing and printing. Distribution of these maps, through a CD, will also take place through the creation of a national bulletin.

State-level and local conservation planners can utilize these maps to assess the incidence of LRFs and the association of minority group farmers. Moreover, the measure of social capital may indicate areas where greater efforts are needed to mobilize leaders within the local population to improve local efforts to involve the community in locally led conservation planning efforts.  A tool, entitled Adding Up Social Capital, is available by clicking on “Interactive Tools” on the left hand side of the screen and then clicking on the tool or the technical overview.  This tool can be used to assess social capital with greater precision at a more localized county or community level.
Your contact is Frank Clearfield, NRCS Social Sciences Team Leader, at 336-370-3331.