Project Description:
The Texas AgrAbility Projects focus is on connecting, assisting, and empowering agricultural producers, their family members, and employees with disabilities and chronic health conditions to stay engaged in production agriculture.
Agriculture work is considered one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States, with an estimated 50,000 disabled farmers and ranchers in Texas. Disabling conditions such as arthritis, amputation, back injuries, heart conditions, traumatic brain injury, and others impact a producer?s ability to perform many of the day-to-day tasks necessary to their operations. These disabilities are often the result of a dangerous work environment where workers often toil in conditions that contribute to or increase the risk of health problems. For example, risks associated with farm equipment operation, handling of livestock, exposure to excessive vibration and motions, potential for increased falls, respiratory hazards, and exposure to extreme temperatures contribute to the overall risk for farmers, ranchers, employees, and family members. There is evidence to suggest that some disabling conditions may increase the risk for secondary injury if preventative steps are not taken. It is estimated that each year, a disabling injury related to work in agriculture occurs on one in every 117 farms. Physical disabilities not related to agriculture increase the rate to one disabling injury for every 24 Texas farms.
Overall Goals and Objectives
The Texas AgrAbility ACE program goal is to connect, assist, and empower agricultural producers, their family members, and employees with disabilities and chronic health conditions to stay engaged in production agriculture. The project does so by:
? Assisting service providers to better understand the unique needs of the agricultural producers as it relates to acquired disabilities and chronic illnesses through training and technical assistance.
? Connecting individuals with a disability to resources specific to their individual needs and to their type of agriculture operation.
? Empowering those who need our services to better navigate the many systems for acquiring disability services and resources, such as assistive etechnology, to help them in their efforts to remain in production agriculture.
Unusual Features
The Texas AgrAbility Project assists individuals to overcome barriers that might otherwise impair their ability to remain in production agriculture by providing:
? Education to individuals with disabilities and their families engaged in production agriculture, as well as service providers who work with them, to increase knowledge about accommodating disabilities, improving function, and avoiding secondary injuries.
? Consultative assistance such as individualized farm and ranch assessment, home environment assessment, financial business analysis, and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses to increase the likelihood that these agriculture producers will remain in production agriculture
? Networking and marketing of the Texas AgrAbility Project to build the capacity to deliver services to the agricultural production employment field through networking and marketing activities with include the dissemination of information, and the identification of AgrAbility clients. Additionally, project staff will forster linkages to disability and health resources.
Expected Benefits
By adopting AgrAbility?s recommendations, persons in the AgrAbility program will increase their ability to:
o Retain/maintain employment in chosen profession
o Manage their farm/ranch
o Complete chores
o Operate machinery
o Gain access to their worksite
Additional expected benefits include:
o General population awareness of employment options for individuals with disabilities in production agriculture
o Disabilities service providers awareness of employment options for individuals with disabilities in production agriculture
o Positive economic impact at the individual, community, and state levels.
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FY 2019
Provided educational information face to face 966 individuals, which equated to 1787 contact hours. Receive 52 client referrals for Battleground to Breaking Ground. There were 52 BGBG particpants with 2496 contact hours. Developed and distributed over 207 Beginning Farmer manuals. Increase planning small farm group members to 1274. Developed new newsletter and an online platform. 380 subscribers.
We have 4 webinars posted online that we did in conjunction with partners like the local AgriLife extension office, Texas Department of Ag, and VetAdvisors. Here is the information for each of those. They are posted online on our YouTube channel
Battleground to Breaking Ground Time Management - VetAdvisors
42 views
Mesquite Field Farm Marketing Webinar
115 views
TDA Young Farmer Grant Applicant Webinar - TDA
123 views
Selling at Farmers Markets - AgriLife Extension FCH
84 views
Resources for Veteran Farmers/Ranchers video for National AgrAbility
2174 views
We had 70 access each module
We held 1 Disaster Assistance workshop with 90 participants. It was duplicated 27 times the last count we had. We have no idea how many people came to them Cottage Food Law - AgriLife Extension FCH
42 views
Selling at Farmers Markets - AgriLife Extension FCH
46 views
N = 966 BGBG workshops
% knowledge gain on scale of 1-5 was 4.36 on all categories
58 workshops (Livestock handling, mobile chicken coops, rotational grazing, composting; etc.)
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Geographic Areas, Rural/Remote, Other
