Program helps immigrant farmers work, learn - Minnesota

“The Calas are part of a program called the New Immigrant Agriculture Project. Almost 80 farmers, mostly Hmong, Latino, and Somali, pay subsidized lease rates to rent crop land. The program leases acreage to farmers for three years, until they’re eligible for loans to buy land.

The Minnesota Food Association started this program in 1998 and the U.S. Department of Agriculture sponsors it. The program goes beyond training farmers on labor skills. The Cala brothers, for example, are learning about sustainable agriculture, niche marketing, health and safety and even farm business management.”

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