Summaryagriculture and agribusiness constitute a huge industry in north carolina, contributing $84 billion of the annual gross state product (walden, 2016), nonetheless NC agriculture faces a…

Summaryagriculture and agribusiness constitute a huge industry in north carolina, contributing $84 billion of the annual gross state product (walden, 2016), nonetheless NC agriculture faces a significant challenge. The average age of a north carolina farmer is 58.9 years and NC farms are quite diverse in nature with over 50,000 farms, most being between 10-49 acres. (U.S. Department of agriculture, 2012A). North carolina certainly needs to add new farm entrepreneurs to replace those retiring to keep up with the growing food demands of a rising population globally. Another major player in NC's economy is the military with a, "significant impact on the state's economy." (levy, 2015) american community survey estimates that more than 666,000 military service members and veterans call north carolina home (tippett, 2018). One avenue to address the issues of agriculture is to assist, educate, mentor, and train exiting military personnel and veterans where IT is most effective to doso. Fort bragg, NC is the largest populated US army base, serving 238,646 active duty and reserve soldiers and veterans, civilian employees, and family members within the local area (militarybases.US, 2019).the U.S. Is facing challenges in the areas of food security and food diversity, and military veterans are becoming increasingly interested in agricultural opportunities due to the nature of agricultural work. The USDA is seeking veterans to take the place of retiring farmers. The veteran community is well suited to become farmers because theynot only have a strong work ethic and tenacity needed to farm, butmany of them have the income with retirements and disability payments that will give them an edge in building a farm without an off-farm job. The correlation between agriculture and the military is regarded as a "deep historical heritage" (besterman-dhah, chavez, bendixsen, & aspillaga, 2015) and most of our military fighting forces from world war II and before werecomprised of men that came from farms (elliott, 2017). In a recent study, (kyle 2018) found that agricultural programs need to be specifically designed with military symbolism to ease veterans and participation is higher when a veteran runs the program. In regard to veteran transition issues, moore (1998) claims situated participation or hands-on training (similar to that of the military) reduces negative symptoms of transition out of the military and into a new career.thus, the veterans agricultural training and education program (vatep) program will serve as a conduit for veterans entering the agricultural world. This program is exclusively designed for veterans and their families and run by veterans who have had prior, successful experience instituting programs and farms.from programs currently in existence, data were gathered from the interested military community. 250 NC veterans were asked to provide input, and 103 provided answers to the question of, "what topics are you wishing to learn about should a training program exist around the multiple facets of agricultural production?" 10 topics were presented as a poll format and 82% of all responses chose the following topics listed in order of highest choices first: 1. Resources and funding, 2. Livestock and poultry, 3. Greenhouse technology, 4. Business, marketing, and risk management, 5. Soil science, and lastly, 6. All topics. Furthermore, survey of 175 veterans local to fort bragg gave results that they would be interested in a program of this scope and scale. Veterans determined they would prefer classes on the farm that would be held during daytime hours. Vatep classes will be held three days a week, monday, wednesday, and friday from 9:00 A.M. To 3:00 P.M. And saturday from 9 A.M. To 5 P.M.evaluation:to ensure program participants have been given the ability to learn basic principles of farming and apply the knowledge they have learned vatep evaluators willensure that the program has included six areas of learning to include, knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. To assess effectiveness of the training models, participants will be asked to complete periodic reviews and surveys that show how well vatep is doing in providing instruction. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations willtake place during the program. The program will have students complete a pre and post assessment on their knowledge of agriculture.three areaswill be used to evaluate the objectives of this grant. Current and final evaluations focused specifically on the training veterans receive, development focused on mentorship and course materials, and evaluation assessment to provide greater data on vatep's effectiveness will be the core of evaluation. These three interrelated components constitute a comprehensive evaluation plan and reporting system that is designed to foster learning, continuous program improvement, and accountability across stakeholder groups. Furtherevaluation will be used to determine: 1) whether project activities were completed in accordance with project timeline and were consistent with initial proposal; 2) participants saw the program as beneficial and 3) which part(s) of the curriculum were least/most useful. The goal:the ultimategoal of this program is to give veterans a full, solid training experience to enter agriculture with the knowledge, resources, and connections needed for success and build new farmers in the U.S.