Women’s agricultural organization to provide educational program

The upcoming programming, “Annie’s Project-Empowering Women in Agriculture,” is an organization founded on educating women and building skills to help them achieve success in farming and agricultural management.  

University of Idaho Extension in the northern district will be holding the six-week long event via Zoom due to COVID-19, although Annie’s Project is typically held in-person. The seminar will happen every Tuesday starting Jan. 19 and will finish on Feb. 23. Each session lasts three hours and it will host over 20 women. 

Annie’s Project curriculum follows five aspects of risk in farming management. Financial, human resource, legal, market and production risks will contribute to the program’s education, as stated on Annie’s Project. They will be individualized to the area and type of farms within counties.  

Committees of women farmers in northern Idaho are assembled by facilitators to assess relevant information to be applied to the curriculum. Women are mentioned throughout the course for the participants to follow up with to continually create resources.  

Colette DePhelps, UI extension educator, was certified February 2020 as an Annie’s Project facilitator. DePhelps, along with three other northern Idaho facilitators, will lead small groups to help create an interactive environment for the women farmers and ranchers attending the course. 

The facilitators role is to help process the information and give occasional presentations throughout the seminar. They will create conversation about the curriculum to open discussion among the women.  

“The women that participate are really going to be able to look at their farm through a different lens and assess how well they are managing risk in those different areas,” DePhelps said. 

The program will feature several women speakers that come from agricultural backgrounds. This opportunity will introduce the women attending with the speakers and allow a chance for networking and facilitate in finding resources.  

“Annie’s Project was designed to create a learning environment where women are not only learning about specific topics but are developing a peer-to-peer network,” DePhelps said. 

Annie’s Project course varies for different states because of the type of agricultural resources and farming in the regions. The focus for the upcoming program will be primarily the northern district, there will be a southern Idaho specific programming in February. 

The course recognizes that some of the role’s women have within the agricultural community are in partnerships or supporting their family farms and ranches. The roles can be directly involved in risk management, maintaining records and organizing financial aspects of the farm’s business.  

“Within the regions of the United States, I think women’s roles in agriculture can look quite different,” DePhelps said.  
Annie’s Project will help develop farm and ranch women’s skills throughout the immersive course. 

Sierra Pesnell can be reached at [email protected]