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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Nunez

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/31/07

HB 285

SHORT TITLE

Services for Small Farmers

SB

ANALYST Hanika Ortiz

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$200.0

recurring

general fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Higher Education Department (HED)

NMSU/College of Agriculture and Home Economics

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 285 and the NMSU Small Farm Initiative (SFI) seeks an appropriation of $200 thou-

sand directed to NMSU’s Cooperative Extension Service for the development of an integrated

teaching, research and extension facility on the NMSU campus to support small and limited-

resource farms and ranches, and sustainable agriculture teaching, research and extension activi-

ties in New Mexico.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $200 thousand contained in the bill is a recurring expense to the general

fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY08 shall revert to the

general fund.

This request was not on the list of priority projects submitted by NMSU to the HED for review

and was not included in the Department’s funding recommendation for FY08.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

NMSU reports that the SFI will help carry out teaching, research, and extension activities that

House Bill 285 – Page

2

focus on the needs of small farmers and ranchers. Particular emphasis will be placed on in-

creased profitability through improved business management practices, the development of new

markets for small growers, and field research in sustainable agriculture practice and technolo-

gies. The Institute will be located in Las Cruces, but its mission is statewide.

NMSU reports the bill will provide funding for a small greenhouse, cold storage, small scale ag-

ricultural equipment and implements, and multipurpose rooms for lab, teaching and outreach.

Many of the small farmers and ranchers lack the skills of farm business management practices

and record keeping due to their traditional custom of barter and lack of focused educational pro-

grams in past years.

Native American communities have the highest high school drop out rate in the country and also

lead the nation in juvenile suicide rates and substance abuse. The same is true in traditional His-

panic communities where families have been displaced from the farms and ranches. Rio Arriba

County leads the nation in heroin addiction and deaths attributed to overdose. The custom and

culture of the Native American and Hispanic People is very much tied to the land and agriculture

in general. If agriculture is lost in these rural communities; custom, culture, tradition and their

language may also be lost in the next few generations.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

This proposal does not indicate how the Small Farm Institute will determine measures for suc-

cessful outcomes

.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

NMSU will administer the funds.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

NMSU has the following comments;

Today, there are nineteen Indian Pueblos, two Apache Nations and the Navajo Nation that are

located in New Mexico, with about 4000 small-scale farmers and ranchers. Most of these Native

American farmers and ranchers have not had access to USDA programs and have been severely

undercounted by USDA in the past Agricultural Census including the 2002 Census which

claimed that there were only 403 Native American farmers and ranchers in New Mexico. USDA

also claims there are 4,499 farms and ranches owned and operated by Hispanic small-scale pro-

ducers; as many as 8,000 have already been identified in Northern New Mexico through other

programs. Over 50% of these Hispanic and Native American farmers and ranchers have never

participated in any USDA programs due to a lack of effective USDA outreach efforts. Agricul-

ture is the core of culture, custom, tradition and language of New Mexico farmer and ranchers

and continues to be a vital economic component to the state.

Individual Native American farmers and ranchers living on their reservations, until the 1990

Farm Bill, were not eligible for USDA programs due to each Indian Reservation, regardless of

size, was counted as only one farm by USDA. Outreach efforts, past and present by USDA have

not been effective due to a lack of technical and educational support at the community level. Ba-

sic agriculture educational programming is non-existent due to the loss of Bureau of Indian Af-

House Bill 285 – Page

3

fairs (BIA) extension contracts over twenty years ago. Local county extension agents do not

have the resource or manpower to cover the large land base within their counties, which include

several of these Pueblos.

ALTERNATIVES

Seek federal grants or private or public funds elsewhere to fund this initiative.

WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL

Small sustainable agriculture farmers may be adversely impacted and economic benefits to the

state may be lost.

AHO/mt