from the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
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How are Black farmers experiencing agriculture today? The shadow of a painful history for Black farmers could engulf the story behind their experiences today. Yet contemporary Black farmers are reshaping the narrative, revitalizing their significance and the contributions they bring to rural areas such as the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta region.
In a new JAFSCD article, Roots of resilience: A case study on the strength and survival of small-scale Black farmers in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta region, authors Destiny Crockett, Shrinidhi Ambinakudige, and Brian Williams present findings from an exploratory case study that examines how small-scale Black farmers in a region dominated by large-scale farms and entrenched in plantation agriculture, experience farming through strategies of self-reliance and autonomy. This study challenges the general conceptualization of the demise of Black farmers and builds upon the emphasis on Black Agrarianism and its notion of resiliency.
KEY FINDINGS
Farm profitability and farm expenses: Black farmers must maneuver differently regarding their farm duties and be strategic in planning to maintain a robust farming operation. Both significant and minor hurdles they face are woven into the fabric of systemic suppression, which has left their legacy fragile and vulnerable.
Resource scarcity and USDA Farm Service Agency relationships: A lack of transparency, poor communication within the FSA, and limited understanding of the application process have all contributed to Black farmers' reluctance to access FSA programs. Discrepancies that have been uncovered interconnect and hinder small-scale Black farmers in the Delta from expanding their farms, despite their right to access government programs. -
Strategies of resilience: Through community cohesion, local cooperatives, and the sharing of locally based agroecological knowledge, farmers receive assistance in identifying government opportunities, securing bulk prices with local seed and grain companies, improving their planting techniques, and organizing food markets to provide fresh produce to rural food hotspots. These farmers position themselves at the forefront of providing locally grown fruits and vegetables to support and enhance food system resilience for themselves and nearby communities.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY AND RESEARCH
While there is extensive literature from a broader perspective centering on the attributes that led to the plight of Black farmers in the Delta, the authors shift their focus to highlighting the voices of Mississippi Delta Black farmers who have reshaped the narrative surrounding Black farming by building resilience through community-based knowledge and communal food systems.
This article uncovers the ways in which Black farmers are cultivating everyday resilience and paying homage to their forefathers, who developed a sense of self and freedom within the agricultural system. The authors particularly acknowledge how local and community-based knowledge serves to continuously develop economic autonomy and sovereignty.
The research interconnects both tangible and intangible responses to the unequal distribution of access faced by Black farmers in the Deep South as they navigate and create their own pathway to economic autonomy in the Delta. Agricultural decision-makers and allies must consider the interrelationships of political and economic structures that Black and Brown small-scale communities endure simply to farm in the present day. SHARE ON YOUR SOCIALS
“One of the things throughout the farm, at the end of the year, when we get our crops out, we go up and disk up a spot and we plant greens and stuff for the community and let people go out and get green[s] for themselves. … We sort of give it to them.” In a new JAFSCD article, learn how Black farmers in the Mississippi Delta are reviving the traditions of their ancestors—like Fannie Lou Hamer in Freedom Farms—by building communal resilience and developing food autonomy in their communities. Read the full @JAFSCD article for free: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2025.143.006
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Image above: Figure 1 from the article provides a map of the study area: The Mississippi Delta, which comprises 11 counties along the Mississippi–Yazoo River. |
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NEWS FROM JAFSCD SHAREHOLDERS |
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Could Mentoring Help People in Your Organization?
Whether at a small local food organization or a large land-grant university, people everywhere benefit from mentoring. Brian Raison, a professor and Extension educator with the Ohio State University, recently compiled 40 easy-to-use mentoring tools to help build capacity in people and organizations.
This mentoring approach is grounded in nonformal learning theory that meets people where they are and provides highly engaging tools (“conversation-starters”) mentors can use with no training. All are available here as free downloads: https://encouragingmentor.com Here are the most-downloaded items: - Mentoring Renovation Framework (14 tools): A simple framework that can be overlaid on any existing mentoring program — or use it to launch a new one. (32 pages)
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Mentoring Early- and Mid-Career (12 conversations): Personal and professional development tools anyone can use in mentoring and career-development coaching. These can also work as self-study materials. (13 pages)
- 20 Anytime Mentoring Questions: A guide provides 20 question prompts that anyone can use to enter into mentoring conversations. (1 page)
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Assistant/Associate Professor of Wildfire Management
(Position #0083067) in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAHR). Full-time, tenure-track position based in Honolulu with an 11-month appointment. Details here. | | County Administrator for Kaua‘i
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