Future of Agriculture

Today’s episode is another installment in our Tech-Enabled Advisor series. The idea here is to better understand agtech through the lens of the BUYER and USER of that technology rather than just the entrepreneurs or investors behind it. I’ve received some super positive feedback about the return of this series. By talking to the buyers rather than the sellers of the tech, we got an unfiltered introduction to the technology and more importantly got to see HOW its used and the VALUE that it provides. To do this, I partner with a company and together we invite one of their customers onto the show. The catch is that they’re not allowed to script these individuals or dictate what to say or edit it after it is recorded - it has to be real and unfiltered. So today’s episode featuring Todd Kirwan of Apex Precision Agriculture is produced in partnership with AgWorld. And I’m really excited to be partnering with them again, as they were a part of the last time I did this tech-enabled advisor series. But for anyone who might not be familiar, Agworld has been operating since 2009, developed by and for growers & agronomists, and is independently owned. The Agworld ecosystem digitally connects growers with their staff, agronomist, contactor, ag retailer and anyone else that is involved in the farming process. The tool is set up to enable collaboration in the digital farming process, so farmers can maximise financial and crop performance. With Agworld you can plan your crop, mitigate your risks, and improve your profitability. And you’re going to get a great illustration of what that looks like on the ground and in practice in today’s episode with Todd Kirwan. Todd and I discuss what types of cultural changes need to happen in a farming operation to get the most out of technology, where things go wrong in the attempts to get the most value out of farm data, why he believes the challenging farm economy makes tools like AgWorld even more critical and some of the changes he sees happening in the future of agriculture. A little background on Todd: Todd Kirwan is the founder of Apex Precision Agriculture, a consultancy focused on helping growers and agribusinesses transform their operational data into their most profitable asset.With over 25 years in large-scale production agriculture, his career has been dedicated to bridging the gap between field-level agronomy and high-level financial strategy. Over that time, he’s seen the industry from every angle, from moving pipe on the family farm to directing operations for a multi-state farming enterprise. Through his experiences in farm management, he recognized a critical need for a partner who understands not just the data, but the human dynamics of implementing change. And that led him to starting Apex Precision Agriculture. Todd grew up working in his family’s farming operation and then started his own custom applicator business. That led him into farm management and leadership for a rapidly expanding farming company called Lance Funk Farms. He then stayed on after Lance Funk sold to AgReserves, which is the agricultural company owned by the LDS church. It was that time at Lance Funk Farms, when they were hyper focused on growth that Todd really embraced how technology can improve a farming operation. 

"The Wizard and the Prophet" by Charles C. MannRhishi Pethe's "Software is Feeding the World" Newsletter "In 1968, the year a USAID official coined the term 'Green Revolution', Norman Borlaug gave a victory lap speech at a wheat meeting in Australia. Twenty years before, he said, Mexican farmers had reaped about 760 pounds of wheat from every acre planted. Now that figure had risen to almost 2,500 pounds per acre, triple the harvest from the same land. The same thing was happening in India. He said the first green revolution wheat had been tested there just in 1964-1965 growing season. It had been so successful that the government had tested it on 7,000 acres the next year, and now it was covering almost 7 million acres. The same thing was happening in Pakistan, and this didn't even count the Green Revolution rice, also short and disease resistant, which was spreading across Asia." That is an excerpt from the book we'll be talking about here today. "The Wizard and the Prophet" by Charles C. Mann. The subtitle is "two remarkable scientists and they're dueling visions to shape tomorrow's world." One of those scientists, "the wizard", was Norman Borlaug: the father of the green revolution. Today's episode focuses on Borlaug's life and contributions to improving crop productivity in some of the most impoverished areas of the world. This episode is co-hosted by Tim Hammerich and Rhishi Pethe.

Erin Silva, Ph.D. https://cias.wisc.edu/directory/17158/FoA 280: Organic Farming Myths and Realities With Erin SilvaI wanted to invite Erin Silva back on the show to hear about her continued work with farmers that are going down the path of organic AND regenerative. On the surface, those two farming approaches are easy to get behind: let’s try to reduce our dependence on synthetic chemistry and let’s try to build soil health over time while still farming intensively and profitably. But in practice, there are tradeoffs. To promote more living roots on the soil through cover crops, as one example, farmers need a way to terminate those cover crops and using herbicides for that is really really helpful. So I’m intrigued about how farmers are making these systems work and how scientists like Erin our doing the critical research to understand how these practices can work on more acres for more farmers. So that is what today’s episode is all about, and for context I’ll give you a brief bio on our guest. Dr. Erin Silva is an Associate Professor and State Extension Specialist in Organic and Sustainable Cropping Systems in the Department of Plant Pathology as well as the Director for the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UW-Madison. Her research influences the strong organic sector that contributes to Wisconsin’s agricultural economy, with Wisconsin second only to California as the state with the greatest number of organic farms. In continued support of these farms and the organic sector within the state, nation, and globally, her research and scholarly contributions continue to be directed in the broad area of the biology and agroecology of organic crop management, with emphases on cover crops, soil health, and genotype/ environment interactions. Dr Silva earned her Ph.D. in Horticulture at Washington State University.

Todd's Profile on Farm Progress: https://www.farmprogress.com/author/todd-fitchetteTodd's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddfitchette/Todd Fitchette is the editor of Western Farm Press which is part of the Farm Progress Group. Todd has been there covering relevant agricultural issues for farmers in the West since 2013. His journalism career began in 1990 with community newspapers in California, where he earned First Place honors from the National Newspaper Association for his photography.His career progressed to agriculture journalism where he reported on livestock and specialty crop issues in the West. This work includes covering subjects relevant to large herd dairy operations, specialty crops including fruits, nuts, vegetables and niche operations. He also covers public policy and water issues affecting western farmers. He has repeatedly been honored for his agricultural journalism by the Fresno County Farm Bureau in California. He currently lives in Yuma, Arizona.I’ve been reading articles from Todd for several years now. I have always appreciated his ability to stay on top of the issues affecting agriculture in the west and to distill information down into a format that is accessible and digestible. I’ve run into him at events like the Almond Conference and FIRA USA and he always seems to be on-site wherever things are happening with the crops that matter most to the western United States.I wanted to invite Todd onto the show to get his perspective as a journalist and someone who is covering these issues. I also wanted to learn more about storytelling and sharing information in agriculture. He shares openly about how he thinks about his work and how he goes about covering so many issues for his readers.

I’m really fascinated by today’s topic of looking into pest and disease outbreaks in animal agriculture from an economist's point of view. Our guest, Jada Thompson, is going to discuss the economics behind prevention of these biosecurity issues,the economic impact when outbreaks do occur,  some of the tradeoffs in the difficult decisions that need to be made, what that means for producers and consumers, and a whole lot more. To give you a little bit of background on Jada: Dr. Jada Thompson is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at the University of Arkansas. She worked in private industry for a few years managing customer insights and pricing analytics before earning her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Colorado State University in 2016. Dr. Thompson’s research primarily focuses on animal health and livestock economics with emphasis on the poultry industry. She also came very highly recommended from Dr. Trey Malone who was on this show last year on episode 434. So thank you Trey for the referral to Jada. 

Lumo: https://lumo.ag/Great episode for you today with Devon Wright of Lumo. The Lumo story is really interesting for a number of reasons. One of which is that they have managed to take on venture capital, but still remain very focused on serving a very specific market within agriculture. As you’ll hear they have resisted the temptation that has led to the demise of so many agtech companies to try to be for everyone and rapidly expand to as many acres as possible. But Lumo is focused exclusively on wine grapes, and for a long time only wine grapes in the areas of Sonoma and Napa Counties in California. Also, Devon is just an interesting dude. I’ll read his bio here to give you a sense of what I’m talking about: Devon Wright is an entrepreneur, investor, and the co-founder and CEO of Lumo, where he and his team are on a mission to massively improve food and freshwater security by giving farmers the best irrigation system in the world. He sold his first startup, a local marketing platform for restaurants, to Yelp in 2017. When he’s not helping growers dial in their irrigation precision or providing advice to other early-stage startups, he’s spending time with his wife and three young daughters on their little farm, or writing cheesy sci-fi romance.

William Ridley, Ph.D. https://ace.illinois.edu/directory/wridleyWilliam Ridley, Ph.D. on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Qjox4QIAAAAJ&hl=enToday’s episode is timely and thought provoking in my opinion. The farm economy is struggling again this year, and while there’s no one cause for all of that struggle, exports certainly play a role. A major role. I’m very pleased to welcome Dr. Bill Ridley onto the show. Bill is an international economist studying global markets and trade policy at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  His research explores pressing market and policy issues relating to international agricultural trade, economic integration, trade disputes, and the implications of globalization for the environment and natural resource use.I wanted to bring Bill on the show to ask about the implications of tariffs and trade disputes for the farm economy, his perspective on the current trade relationship with China, his work on the virtual water trade which is an interesting concept measuring how much domestic water gets used to export food out of the country, and his thoughts on the path forward from here. If you’re hoping for a rosey picture of how this all plays out, I’ll warn you now - you may be disappointed. But it’s certainly an important topic to be thinking deeply about how this impacts your business for all of us in agriculture. 

Follow Chris on X: https://x.com/reggajFollow Chris on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluefoxfarmListen to Chris' podcast "Not Only Farmers": https://open.spotify.com/show/12YRGbk9IYMh4gbR0pTkEh?si=d14c005214ab418dChris Jagger on episode 129 of the "Farmer to Farmer" Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBplMcnNdO4Chris Jagger and his wife Melanie Kuegler have been running Blue Fox Farm in southern Oregon since 2004. They started with 1 acre of mixed vegetable production, scaled to 45 acres, and now have scaled back to around 7 acres in vegetables. Besides farming, Chris has dipped his toes into many other realms of agriculture- consulting for other farms, running an ag supply business, starting a soil-based ag conference, and now looking at new ways to build the regional supply chain in the Pacific Northwest. The main goal in all of these endeavors is building community and feeding people.I’ve known Chris from Twitter for years now, and he has some bold and innovative ideas about the industry, but his perspective is still also very grounded in the practicality of running a farm business. We discuss finding the right scale as a first generation farmer, the decision to sell retail vs wholesale, what it takes to build regional food systems, what technology is needed on smaller scale farms, and more. 

Sentera: https://sentera.com/Chandler Coop: https://www.chandlercoop.com/Today’s episode is another installment in our Tech-Enabled Advisor series. The idea here is to better understand agtech through the lens of the BUYER and USER of that technology rather than just the entrepreneurs or investors behind it. I’ve received some super positive feedback about the return of this series. By talking to the buyers rather than the sellers of the tech, we got an unfiltered introduction to the technology and more importantly got to see HOW its used and the VALUE that it provides. To do this, I partner with a company and together we invite one of their customers onto the show. The catch is that they’re not allowed to script these individuals or dictate what to say or edit it after it is recorded - it has to be real and unfiltered. So today’s episode featuring Nick Einck of Chandler Coop is produced in partnership with Sentera. Sentera is a leading provider of remote imagery solutions. Their industry-leading cameras are compatible with most major drone platforms and enable farmers and crop scouts to efficiently capture high-resolution data. Their capabilities and FieldAgent software tools help farmers and agronomists assess plant-level health, identify stressors, and take action. Also their customized herbicide prescription, SMARTSCRIPT™ Weeds, can be delivered to sprayers with individual nozzle control.So drones equipped with Sentera technology fly over fields at high speeds and generate high-resolution images. The images are processed using proprietary deep learning algorithms to identify the exact location of specific weeds and generate a weed map. This map becomes a targeted prescription for how much product a farmer needs to load into their sprayer, saving money and minimizing waste. This past May, John Deere announced they were acquiring Sentera.So I’m very excited to partner with them for this episode, which is a fantastic deep dive into how innovative technology like this combined with something like See-and-Spray really changes the game.Some background on Nick before we dive in: Nick Einck is the Director of Agronomy at Chandler Co-op, a farmer-owned cooperative serving more than 900 customers and providing agronomic services across over 100,000 acres in southwest Minnesota. He began his career at Chandler as an intern and seed manager before spending nearly a decade with Monsanto and Bayer, gaining deep expertise in agronomy, product development, and grower engagement across the Midwest. Nick returned to Chandler in October 2024, bringing both retail and industry experience to help advance the co-op’s agronomic strategy. Today, he leads a multi-location agronomy team focused on leveraging tech-enabled tools—like SmartScript™—to help growers make faster, more informed decisions and drive greater return from every acre.

Ambrook: https://ambrook.com/Offrange: https://ambrook.com/offrange"Not Boring" Founder's Letter: https://www.notboring.co/p/america-the-beautifulMackenzie Burnett: On Agriculture and American Progress on Rhishi Pethe's "Software is Feeding the World" Today’s episode features a pretty intriguing startup, Ambrook. I say intriguing not just because they recently announced a $26.1M series A round in this tough environment to raise capital. But they are focused on what I would consider a not very flashy part of the industry, accounting software. Not a new concept. On the surface, it doesn’t sound like one of those moonshot problems startups like to spin a narrative around like mitigating climate change or feeding the billions. But those of us who have spent time on farms or ranches know there are still plenty of opportunities for improvement in this area. And in just over 18 months of commercialization Ambrook already claims to have over 2,500 operations using their software. Another interesting part of their business is as they were building their financial management tool, they also launched their own media venture called Ambrook Research. They have since rebranded it to Off Range, but it boasts more than 150,000 newsletter subscribers to read stories about agriculture and food. But will all this lead to better outcomes for producers, a successful business for Ambrook and a more resilient agriculture in the future? That’s what I wanted to know from Ambrook co-founder and CEO Mackenzie Burnett. Before starting this financial management software company, Mackenzie’s prior experience was working in community nonprofits, water asset management, and open source software infrastructure. She holds an M.A. in international policy and climate security from Stanford University.

Vance Crowe: https://www.vancecrowe.com/Legacy Interviews: https://www.legacyinterviews.com/Vance Crowe on X: https://x.com/VanceCroweVance Crowe is a communications strategist that has worked for corporations and international organizations around the world. Crowe has spoken before more than 250,000 people, answering questions about some of the most sophisticated and controversial technologies in the modern age. He has worked for organizations as varied as the World Bank, Monsanto, the U.S. Peace Corps and even as a deckhand on an ecotourism ship. Today he is the founder of Legacy Interviews, a service that privately records the life stories of individuals and couples so that future generations can know their family history. The Vance Crowe Podcast hosts guests from around the world with artists, psychologists, economists, farmers, ambassadors and heads of state. Vance and I discuss his views on reinvention, artificial intelligence, how to develop healthy habits with technology in general, and bitcoin and why he believes it will de-monetize farmland as just one of the implications of more widespread adoption of that technology. If you’ve ever thought “I don’t think I understand bitcoin and frankly it feels to late to ask” this is probably going to be a good episode for you, because I ask some fundamental questions. I’m not saying you’ll fully understand it today, but Vance also offers some pretty practical advice for those who want to go deeper. 

This episode was produced in partnership With AgVend: https://www.agvend.com/MFA, Inc: https://mfa-inc.com/ FoA 269: [Tech-Enabled Advisor Series] Cooperatives Embrace Digital Tools with KC Graner of Central Farm ServiceI'm bringing back the Tech-Enabled Advisor Series to better understand agtech through the lens of the BUYER of that technology rather than just the entrepreneurs or investors. By talking to the buyers rather than the sellers of the tech, we got an unfiltered introduction to the technology and more importantly got to see how its used and the VALUE that it provides users. To do this, I partner with a company and together we invite one of their customers onto the show. The catch is that they’re not allowed to script these individuals or dictate what to say or edit it after it is recorded - it has to be real and unfiltered. So today’s episode featuring Jason Weirich of MFA was produced in partnership with AgVend. Since launching their first platform in 2020, AgVend’s technology is used by more than 35% of the North American ag retail market. Today you’ll hear how one of those retailers, MFA, launched a digital platform called MFA Connect with AgVend.Jason Weirich is the executive vice president of operations at MFA, which has around 45,000 member owners. They are one of the largest ag retailers in the country, consistently in the top 10 of the CropLife 100. Jason oversees the retail operations located throughout Missouri and surrounding states including Southern IA, Eastern KS, Northeast AR and Northwest Oklahoma. He also oversees the wholesale operations which span the entire midwest from the rocky mountains to Ohio. Prior to joining MFA 15 years ago, Jason was the state extension weed specialist with the University of Missouri. He joined the cooperative as the director of agronomy and says he walked a lot of fields for nine years before eventually moving into his current role. Our conversation today touches on the the relevance of the cooperative model, how he’s making difficult decisions in this tough farm economy, why they implemented MFA Connect and the results they are seeing from this digital platform and customer portal, the role of the ag retailer in the changing farmer demographic, and how he goes about implementing change in a big industry and a large organization. About AgVend:AgVend is the leading provider of digital enablement solutions that transform the way agribusinesses operate their organizations and engage with their customers. AgVend’s white-labeled system of action streamlines workflows from field to office, enabling frontline teams to offer more efficient and differentiated customer interactions. Since launching their first platform in 2020, AgVend’s technology is used by more than 35% of the North American ag retail market.

Clayton Farms: https://claytonfarms.com/Clayton Mooney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claytonmooney/ FoA 53: Millennials Solving World Problems Through Agricultural Technology with MiKayla Sullivan of KinosolClayton Mooney is the co-founder and chief farmer at Clayton Farms based in Ames, Iowa. They build direct-to-consumer indoor farms and claim to serve the world's freshest salads. They were also part of Y Combinator in the winter of 2019. Clayton is fearlessly building his vision for a farm that grows local, healthy, accessible food and provides a real connection with customers in the community through a quick service restaurant. That’s right, it’s a restaurant with a drive through that grows hydroponic produce inside of it. Clayton will provide a lot more details in this episode, and I think it will be abundantly clear why his story is so interesting, relevant and inspiring for anyone thinking about the future of agriculture. But just for some brief background, Clayton grew up on a farm in Iowa and played professional poker before returning to his home state and starting Kinosol. In fact, his now wife Mikayla was one of his co-founders at Kinosol was on this show WAY back on episode 53 in May of 2017. I’ll drop you into the conversation here where Clayton is giving more of his background and describing the early days of what was first called Nebulum, but was eventually re-branded into Clayton Farms. 

Thank you all for sticking with me through this break, and especially for those of you who reached out! I'm going to keep the FoA Feedback invitation open for the foreseeable future. If you'd like to book a call you can do so here: https://www.calendly.com/hammerich/foa.

I would love your feedback about the show: what should I start/stop/continue? Email: tim@aggrad.comSchedule a quick call: https://www.calendly.com/hammerich/foaOr DM me on LinkedIn or X (Twitter) Otherwise, see you in July!

Subscribe to Agriscience Explained: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qvFYYLq1dZM1KUiN6nz6H?si=6a6dd6193eea47a1Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agriscience-explained/id1789150766Web: https://www.corteva.com/our-impact/innovation/agriscience-explained.htmlOver the past eight years, I have learned so much from this podcast and it’s opened up a lot of cool opportunities. Some of those opportunities have been to help others launch their own shows. In fact a big part of my consulting work is helping commodity groups and companies reach agricultural audiences through digital communication like podcasts. What you’re about to hear is an episode from one of those projects. Earlier this year, I helped Corteva Agriscience launch a new show called Agriscience Explained. Each episode includes voices from a scientist and a farmer to understand how innovations are developed and where they fit into a modern farm business. I’ve really enjoyed working with Corteva on this, and we’ve already posted 10 episodes with an 11th coming this week on topics ranging from seed to nematodes to cover crops to gene editing to reduced stature corn. It really is a cool format to explore the various aspects of agriscience. So here’s episode one, if you like it, make sure you find their show and subscribe for more. 

The Modern Acre PodcastAgListPolaris Energy ServicesNuss FarmsFor today’s episode, I sit down with Tim and Tyler Nuss. Some of you may recognize their voices from their podcast, The Modern Acre. After growing up on the family farm and finding out in adulthood that they both were really interested in business, they started brainstorming ideas of how they could build something in the ag industry. Tyler said they were big fans of the real estate media brand “Bigger Pockets” which had a podcast and built a community and several adjacent businesses around it. They set out to do something similar in agriculture, and in their own way they have. I wanted to bring them onto the show because in the past year, Tyler announced he would be assuming the role of CEO for Polaris Energy Services and they both launched what they’re calling the Yelp for agriculture which is called AgList. So they wear a lot of hats between these businesses, the podcast, and the farm. 

"Tractor Wars" by Neil Dahlstrom: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1953295746/Software is Feeding the World (Rhishi's newsletter): https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftw[History of Agriculture] Cyrus McCormick And The Birth Of Mechanical Harvesting It's impossible to picture the modern food system we have today without the invention of the tractor. And it happened really not that long ago, just over a hundred years ago.Today we're gonna be talking about this book, "Tractor Wars" by Neil Dahlstrom. Neil is the manager of archives and history at John Deere and tackling this book with me is my good friend and repeat host on the podcast, Rhishi Pethe.An excerpt from the epilogue of "Tractor Wars: John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester and the Birth of Modern Agriculture": " Fortune magazine called the 1920s the decade of the Fordson. Not everyone agreed, but the fact that the Fordson accelerated adoption of the farm tractor and forever altered the competitive landscape is undeniable. Ford was right about the insatiable appetite for automobiles and in time for farm tractors. There were now 17 million passenger cars and nearly two and a half million trucks traveling on more than 521,000 miles of surfaced roads. But he had miscalculated the connection between farmers and their land and their constantly evolving needs. Most importantly, farmers wanted to fortify that relationship, not end it. Only 33 American farm tractor manufacturers remained in 1929 as mergers, consolidations and bankruptcies continued to narrow the field. In its overview of the tractor industry in early 1928 the Tractor Field book surmised that large numbers of inefficient machines were discarded during the five-year period from 1920 to 1924. As many were built by companies whose efforts were largely experimental."So it's that process of like explosion in consolidation that we're gonna be talking about here today from Neil Dahlstrom's book.

The Almond Doctor: https://www.thealmonddoctor.com/David's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheAlmondDoctorFoA 249: A Global Perspective on Tree Nuts with The Almond DoctorDavid Doll was raised in a rural area growing apples and peaches. After attending Purdue University for his B.S. in Plant Biology, he attended graduate school at UC Davis, completing his M.S. in Plant Pathology. Shortly after completion, he started to work as a Farm Advisor the University of California.After ten years of working as a Farm Advisor, David moved to Portugal in November 2018 to work as the lead developer for Rota Unica Almonds. His task is to develop California styled almond plantations within Alentejo. Through this process, he has become familiar with some of the various challenges associated with growing almonds in Portugal and Europe.Prior to his move, David worked with farmers in the Central Valley of California in troubleshooting problems and conducting on farm research within almonds, walnuts and pistachios. In this position, he would visit nearly 200 operations and deliver 35 presentations annually. He has published over 35 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. Currently, he works with almond operations across the world, including California, Africa, and Australia. Many of his observations and lessons learned have been shared within his online platform, “The Almond Doctor,” where he shares research, experiences and opinions of better farm management practices for almond orchards.

AgriCorps: http://www.agricorps.org/Movement for School-Based Agricultural Education: http://www.sbae.org/4-H Liberia: https://4hliberia.wordpress.com/Trent McKnight's TedX Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2pPO29DaYsToday’s episode is going to open a lot of eyes I think. We tend to think of youth programs like 4-H and FFA as great things for the kids to be doing. Very few recognize them for the power they have to not only develop young agricultural leaders but also as tools for spreading ideas and technologies. That’s what today’s episode is about, and it’s a personal one for me. I grew up in 4-H and FFA and both organizations had a profound impact on my life and my worldview. Then in 2012 I joined a team led by today’s guest, Trent McKnight, and spent several weeks in the country of Liberia interviewing farmers about food insecurity and farming practices. That experience also left a permanent impression on my life. So I’ve known Trent for about 25 years now and have had a chance to work with his non-profit organization, AgriCorps in various capacities over the years. In fact Trent first appeared on this show WAY back on episode 27, which i posted in November of 2016, so over eight years ago. For those of you not familiar, 4-H and FFA are youth agricultural organizations. 4-H varies a lot state to state and country to country, but in Liberia which is a country in subsaharan Africa that we will focus on today, they have what is known as a school-based agricultural education model. So in that way Liberia 4-H is similar to how FFA is here in the states. It involves three major components: classroom instruction in agriculture as part of their school, leadership events and contents, and a project outside of the classroom which in Liberia they refer to as a Home Entrepreneurship Project or HEP. If it sounds like a great way to learn a lot about agriculture and develop yourself as a leader and entrepreneur, you’re absolutely right. But it’s also more than that. The model was intended to lower the risk of adopting new agricultural innovations and as you’re about to hear it is also very effective in doing just that. Some biographical background: Trent McKnight is an experienced international agriculturalist, investor, and cattle rancher from rural West Texas. Trent holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Agricultural Economics and Comparative Politics from Oklahoma State University and The London School of Economics, respectively. He has held leadership positions, including national president of the Future Farmers of America and chair of the USDA Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Advisory Committee. In 2013, Trent founded AgriCorps, a nonprofit organization focused on improving school-based agricultural education in sub-Saharan Africa. Through AgriCorps, he created the International Agricultural Education Fellowship Program under the Trade Title of the 2018 Farm Bill and launched The Movement for School-Based Agricultural Education. G. Umaru Sheriff is the National Executive Director and co-founder of 4-H Liberia, a local Non-Governmental Organisation reviving efforts from the 1970s and 1980s, when Liberia boasted over 1,000 4-H clubs. Under his leadership, 4-H Liberia has worked in hundreds of rural communities and empowered thousands of youth through School-Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) and leadership development. Committed to evidence and learning, Umaru partnered with Northwestern University, Innovations for Poverty Action, and AgriCorps on the largest randomized