By Caroline D Champlin
Small-scale growers invited to save money, try new techniques by checking out equipment and engaging with UC research.
Everything starts with a tractor. That’s the mantra of grape grower Albert Smith, whose family has been farming in southwest Fresno for generations.
“ Everything you do starts with a good machine,” Smith said.
Purchasing new equipment, however, can be an exorbitant expense, especially for small-scale farmers like Smith. Modern tractors can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But what if growers could borrow or test out machines, rather than risk a big purchase?
That’s the idea behind an equipment-lending library that opened this month at the Kearney Research and Extension Center in Parlier. The concept was developed and funded through the F3 Local grant, which stands for Food, Farm and Innovation. F3 Local is a regional initiative working to build a more inclusive and resilient food economy in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
The team behind the lending library includes Tracy Celio, regional director of F3 Local Farm and Food Innovation, Amber Butland, F3 Local Equipment Lending Library coordinator and Jose Ramiro Ortiz Pellegrin, the Local Equipment Lending Library agricultural technician.
Source : ucanr.edu