‘The Maine Question’ asks how business savvy can help farmers succeed

Like opening any business, starting a farm can be challenging without any entrepreneurial knowledge or skills. To help to fill a gap between contemporary business education and agriculture among some beginning farmers, University of Maine faculty members Erin Percival Carter and Stephanie Welcomer established the Business, Agriculture, and Rural Development (BARD) technical assistance training program in the Maine Business School. 

The BARD program trains UMaine students to serve as consultants for farmers and operators of other small-scale and sustainable agricultural businesses. These students can assist agribusinesses with various aspects of commerce, such as data-management, price-setting, marketing, financial and strategic forecasting, market segmentation, product development, market intelligence and consumer research.

The BARD program recently received a $292,000 award from the Small Business Administration that was requested by U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King through the FY22 Congressionally Directed Spending process, known as earmarks.  

In episode seven of season seven of “The Maine Question,” Carter, an assistant professor of marketing, discusses how business savvy can help farms succeed.

Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Spotify, YouTube or “The Maine Question” website. New episodes are added Thursdays.

What topics would you like to learn more about? What questions do you have for UMaine experts? Email them to mainequestion@maine.edu.