OATS (Organic Agronomy Training Service)

OATS is a training program for agricultural professionals working with organic or transitioning farmers in the northern tier of the U.S., fiscally sponsored by the Organic Trade Association. With this award, OATS will increase domestic organic crop production by strengthening the support network of organic agronomists, certified crop advisors, Cooperative Extension agents and technical service providers. OATS aims for every transitional and certified organic farmer to have robust access to unbiased, science-based support for their farming operation. The prize helps OATS achieve its goal by supporting the development of an organic professional certificate program, a variety of multi-media training tools and an industry-wide assessment to identify future participants and necessary education.

1. Developing an organic professional certificate — In addition to the industry-wide shortage of organic technical advisors, there is currently no widely recognized mechanism for farmers to discern the qualifications of advisors that do exist. In 2021, OATS began a conversation with the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) to explore offering an organic specialty certificate for CCAs. OATS is continuing this conversation, and if ASA determines it is not a good fit for them, they will design a stand-alone certificate administered by OATS.
2. Expanding access to information through durable resources by creating a series of 12 entertaining, informative, high-production value, bite-sized video lessons that are freely available on the OATS YouTube channel. Each are accompanied by a topical factsheets. OATS is also producing three episodes of the OATS podcast, which explores seasonal topics through interviews with experts and farmers.
3. Industry-wide assessment to target training participants, areas, and content — OATS is seeking input from analysts from public and private institutions to identify the factors that drive companies to choose to import, identify regions where these factors have the best opportunity to be met domestically, and use that information to better target its recruitment, content and networking. OATS is also identifying the topic areas that are of most importance to smaller scale and disadvantaged farmers.

This research develops and deploys the latest technology and knowledge to help farmers build and maintain healthy, productive soil and to protect farmers’ livelihoods and the environment, while increasing productivity.