2005 Small Producers Conference
Rio Grande-Nueces RC&D

HOSTED BY: Texas-Mexico Border Coalition (TMBC) and the Rio Grande-Nueces RC&D Council. SPONSORED BY: the City of Eagle Pass, USDA, the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Texas Cooperative Extension Service, the Texas Department of Agriculture, Project FORGE – a Division of CoSERVE, HiFARM, Area Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and the Eagle Pass Chamber of Commerce. FINANCIAL SPONSORS: the USDA Farm Service Agency, USDA-NRCS, and USDA Office of Outreach

On Sunday, May 22, exhibitors, speakers and participants began to arrive in Eagle Pass, Texas for the 2005 Texas-Mexico Border Region Small Producers’ Conference. An opening mixer at La Quinta Hotel allowed these folks to meet and get to know each other in an informal setting.

Monday morning the crowd began to gather and register for the conference at the Fort Duncan Multipurpose Center in Eagle Pass. Texas-Mexico Border Coalition Chairman, Omar Garza made introductions and welcomed everyone to the event. Also welcoming conference participants to the county and community were Maverick County Judge, Jose “Pepe” Aranda, and Eagle Pass City Mayor, Chad Foster. Following opening comments Norman Bade of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Juan Garcia of Farm Service Agency (FSA), Geraldine Herring of Office of Outreach, and Robin Roarke of National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), all gave short presentations about their respective agencies and their interest and involvement in promoting and giving support to small producers along the Texas-Mexico border. Following these presentations, Aisha Cruz gave an introduction to Electronic Government (E-GOV) stressing that E-Gov training would be available throughout the conference in the E-Gov Training Van.

After a short break, Dr. Daniel Leskovar, Vegetable Specialist with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station in Uvalde, gave a very interesting presentation on Stevia, a plant grown in numerous countries around the world commercially and used as a sweetener. He outlined the history of Stevia, and discussed its potential as a crop well suited for the border region of Texas which could be produced on small acreages. He mentioned that Stevia is grown in the U.S. only for personal use at this time or as nursery stock to be sold directly to consumers. FDA restrictions inhibit commercial production and marketing of Stevia at this time, but the Experiment Station has established research plots, in hopes to have technical information about the growing and harvesting of Stevia in place if and when FDA approval is granted. Recipes and use information for Stevia were distributed as well as Stevia plants for anyone interested in growing the plant for their own consumption.

Mario A. Morales, Rio Grande-Nueces RC&D Coordinator, gave a short slide presentation on SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program). SARE offers six grant opportunities including: Research and Education
Grants; Graduate Student Awards; Producer Grants; Sustainable Community Innovation Grants; Professional Development Grants and On-Farm Research Grants.

Participants enjoyed a barbecue lunch while listening to Norman Bade, USDA-NRCS, discuss NRCS Programs followed by Juan Garcia, USDAFSA, who described the purpose of FSA.

After lunch, break-out sessions with PowerPoint presentation were given on Hydroponics, Olive Production, and Organics Production. Smiljana Goreta, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, gave a fascinating presentation on hydroponics based on her work in Europe. Nasir Malik, ARS, USDA gave his presentation on olive orchards and olive production for olive oil to interested producers. Robin Bowman of Bowman Farms in Utopia, Texas, gave a presentation on her organic vegetable, egg, and poultry farm.

The second half of the afternoon presentations included a presentation on Marketing and Produce Coops by Billy Curb, USDA-RD, followed by a presentation and discussion about Marketing to Grocery Chains, by Robert Maggiani, TDA
Marketing Specialist which concluded the educational portion of the day’s events.

The group all met back at La Quinta at 6:00 P.M. to head to the Lucky Eagle Casino for dinner and a visit to the casino.

Tuesday morning began early with buses carrying guests to Jim Henry’s olive orchard near Asherton, Texas. Mr. Henry spoke about his orchards and answered questions about his operation. He also sells a large variety of olive trees and many participants purchased trees. The next stop on the farm tours was the NHS Hydroponics Greenhouse near Carrizo Springs. The greenhouse was not in full production at the time, but Manuel Estrada, Executive Director of
NHSDC, Inc., discussed the hydroponics project and it’s potential for year-round vegetable production.

The last morning stop was at Buddy Jones’ goat ranch in Dimmit County. Dimmit County Cooperative Extension Agent,
Richie Griffin and TDA’s Brad Rohder described aspects of Mr. Jones’ meat goat operation ranging from pasture
management, diseases and parasites that affect goat herds, to marketing the animals. Always a special part of the day, lunch, was thoroughly enjoyed at Yolie’s Restaurant in Crystal City, Texas.

Following lunch, the tours continued. First stop was Ed Ritchie’s farm near Crystal City where he, with the help of Dr. Stein, and Marcel Valdez, Zavala County Cooperative Extension Agent, has started an orchard of several varieties of avocado trees and several varieties Stevia Plants Richie Griffin Jim Henry Billy Curb of Satsumas (a citrus fruit). Then, it was back in the buses and off to Mario Escobar’s pecan orchard. Mr. Escobar, Homeland Security Agent at the Texas-Mexico border in Eagle Pass and a member of the TMBC, told about his 320 acre orchard and how he got started in the pecan orchard business. Dr. Larry Stein, Horticulturist with the Texas Cooperative Extension Service discussed pecan varieties, production issues and answered questions regarding the pecan industry.

Very early Wednesday morning the Texas- Mexico Border Coalition held their annual meeting and elections. Afterward, everyone returned to the Multipurpose Center for more presentations beginning with Heifer International’s North America Program Director, Rigoberto Delgado, giving a wonderful and inspiring presentation about the organization. Following Mr. Delgado’s presentation, several Micro Lending Institutions and Organizations made presentations. Rosa Uribe, Loan Consultant with Accion Texas, Mark Keller with Southwest ACA, Sara Webb with USDA FSA, and Lucy Maldonado, with US Small Business Administration all spoke about lending opportunities offered by their respective organizations. In conclusion, Mr. Luis Urbina, Director of the Rio Grande College Small Business Development Center outlined services the agency offers to small businesses. Mr. Uribe stressed that all services are free of charge and strongly encouraged producers, particularly new producers, to make use of these services.

The conference wrapped up shortly before noon on Wednesday. Participants were asked to fill out an evaluation form to help plan future conferences.

The producers attending the conference as well as those participating in putting on the conference all seemed satisfied with the information presented at the various sessions and the farm tours. Many producers asked to be invited to future conferences and seminars.

“Everyone had a great time as well as gained valuable information. Many new friends were made and resources revealed. Attendance was even better than expected. Overall the conference was a terrific success” stated T-MBC Chairman, Omar Garza. Rio Grande-Nueces RC&D will create a CD that will include all the Power Point presentations from the conference and will be offered free of charge to anyone requesting a copy. Sixteen people have requested the CD so far.

“We are already in the early planning stages for future spin off workshops and seminars” said Larry Ernst, a local director of the T-MBC. He continued, “We hope these conferences will benefit the small acreage owners and operators and have a positive impact on rural communities along the Texas-Mexico border.”

“The two messages that seemed to be repeated over and over throughout this conference, are: Number one - producer coops are the way of the future for small farmers, and Number two – you’d better become computer literate if you want to keep up and reach any degree of success whether it be in agriculture or any business,” commented RC&D Coordinator, Mario Morales. “We plan to do everything we can to help small producers become successful by helping them form coops as well as provide training in computer use.”

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