Program boosts Maine farmers’ profits, sales

PITTSFIELD – An innovative, farm-based grant program has resulted in an average 37.3 percent increase in sales and profits for those farms that participated, according to a recent study.

Farms for the Future program administrator Kerri Sands said this week that she knows of no other agriculture program that has had these kinds of results.

“In this time of thin budgets, it is nice to see something that is working,” Sands said. “Many of the farmers who were surveyed for this evaluation are just now completing their projects and anticipate seeing even better measurable returns during the next few years. So this is just the beginning of the story.”

FFF is a statewide economic development program jointly administered by Coastal Enterprises Inc. and the Maine Department of Agriculture. It provides business planning support and, in some cases, small grants matched by the farmers’ own resources.

Sands said the results of the grant programs were remarkable. “I think we have achieved our success for two main reasons: one, that well-managed farms are viable entities, and two, that we pull together existing resources and people – state, nonprofit, private and university – and match them to farms in a structured process.”

The study, which was conducted by Pan Atlantic SMS of Maine, revealed that the 75 farmers who received grants since the program’s inception in 2001 have employed 71 new workers and anticipate adding nearly 60 more during the next three years, reversing a declining trend.

In addition, a majority of the farmers using the program – 82.8 percent – reported that their farm’s production increased.

At the start of the FFF grant program, Sands said, it was estimated that the $1.57 million in grant funds would be matched with $4.87 million in farmer funds. “However, farmers reported to us that they have spent approximately $7.57 million,” Sands said.

“They have invested an additional $1.15 million of their own money and spent a further $1.72 million on capital investments, making the overall leverage factor of the FFF program approximately five to one,” she said. “This is incredibly exciting.”

“Farms for the Future helped me expand a hobby farm into a real working business that should show a profit for many years to come,” Sam Blackstone of Circle B Farms in Caribou said.

“We had the interest and enthusiasm but lacked the framework to organize our feelings into a workable plan,” Brian Powers of Harts Clary Hill Farm in Union said. “We benefited from the process and continue to benefit from the results.”

The survey, which was commissioned in October 2007, also revealed that for participating farmers:

. Gross sales increased an average of $39,000 after receiving a grant.

. Approximately 18,000 acres of farmland has been protected for at least five years.

. More than 78 percent of the farmers indicated they have changed their internal business practices based on FFF planning.

. Two-thirds of the farmers reported they introduced new technologies to their farms.

. More than 78 percent indicated that their farm’s efficiency has increased.

. More than half reported that they have introduced new products, including value-added products, and 62.5 percent said they have entered into new marketing channels.

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