Holistic Management training comes to New England via New Hampshire

Seth Wilner, UNH Cooperative Extension Agricultural Resources educator in Sullivan County, has won a $172,000 Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Professional Development Grant to train farmers, Extension educators, and other agricultural professionals who work with farmers in whole-farm planning and management using the Holistic Management method.

Wilner's project, titled Building Capacity in Whole-farm Systems and Planning using the Holistic Management Framework, will fund four three-day training sessions held over the course of two years, covering topics such as goal setting, decision making, farm financial planning and management, environmental assessment of changes to the land and ecosystem health, and implementing a farm monitoring system.

An innovative model for decision-making
"The Holistic Management (HM) framework evolved from Zimbabwean wildlife biologist Allan Savory's insight that destructive land-use and environmental patterns result from the way people make decisions," says Wilner.

"So, Holistic Management training starts by identifying everyone involved in daily decision-making in an operation or a farm-based business. Getting all the decision-makers involved in establishing a whole farm plan provides a common framework that allows everyone to assess decisions made on a farm," he says.

"The goals of Holistic Management are to enhance farm profitability, improve efficiency, improve communication, reduce conflict, and promote environmental sustainability."

Components of Holistic Management training
Comprehensive in its design, the training will include a mix of classroom and on-farm sessions. "The course teaches participants to work with farmers to develop farm plans that actively guide their decisions and management, says Wilner. "Participants will leave the training with the ability to guide farmers to examine their relationships and their beliefs, brainstorm new enterprises, articulate goals and identify what they want life on their farm and in their community to be now and in the future."

Participants will also learn to teach farmers how to run all decisions through a series of 'testing questions', or filters, before acting on them. This helps ensure that the action will be socially, economically, and economically sustainable, both in the present and for future generations," Wilner says."

Farmers as both students and teachers
Wilner will invite farmers already using HM to manage their own farms to co-teach some of the classes. "We'll have farmers as both students and trainers," he says. "Other interesting aspects of the training include the use of distance education methods such as an interactive website, a listserv, as well as help from a mentor to aid all participants over the course of the training. All participants will also work with at least two farms when they return home to implement the skills they learned in the sessions. "

Introductory seminar May 30
Wilner, certified as an HM trainer in 2003, will offer a one-day introductory seminar May 30 to introduce people to Holistic Management principles. Call him at 603/863-9200 for more information about the seminar.

Photo caption: Farmers work on whole-farm plans at workshop in Troy, N.H, in January
Photo credit: Seth Wilner