Arkansas agriculture is known for grains and fiber crops — rice, cotton, soybeans and so on — but it is also a big player in some specific produce crops. For example, it is one of the top states in the country for peanut production. Also, while it is only 10th in the nation for overall soybean production, it boasts itself as No. 1 in the U.S. for edamame.
But it is also a state seeing a boom in small, diversified growers, according to Amanda Philyaw Perez, extension specialist at the University of Arkansas. And those small growers are growing.
“We’ve seen a really big increase in the number of people who have taken advantage of the USDA NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) funds to receive high tunnels,” she said. “Oftentimes those growers are smaller-scale, diversified vegetable producers, and they are adding cut flowers into those production systems as well.”
There is another interesting small-scale produce trend being seen in Arkansas: people adding agriculture into their lives.
“We’re starting to see a development of very, very small farms; almost what you would consider a backyard gardener selling produce,” Perez said. “They will grow for their family, and then they will have excess that they will sell either to a local food retailer or add a little pop-up farm stand in their driveway.”
She explained that these small backyard growers sometimes work together with larger, but still small, farms that effectively act as a produce aggregator. These are supplying another Arkansas trend: small farm shops.
“It’s kind of a resurgence of the mom-and-pop grocery,” said Perez, noting that they tend to be open a several days a week and get produce and value-added items from “whoever they can source from within their community.”
“People are adding ag in small increments to their lifestyle instead of it being their primary profession,” she said of the trends, which she called innovative. “It’s pretty interesting to see someone’s approach to returning to ag.”
Established Growers Also Growing and Diversifying
Innovation, growth and diversification are not limited to those just returning to ag in Arkansas. Established growers such as Matthews Ridgeview Farms, which has more than a century of continuous growing experience, are also expanding and diversifying.
Autumn Campbell, sales manager for Matthews Ridgeview Farms, said the farm has added acreage in recent years, on top of a 2018 expansion, and has broadened its offerings.
“The last couple of years, we’ve added a new (sweetpotato) variety that we’re growing: the murasaki,” she said. “It’s not a new variety, but it’s a new item for us to offer our customers, and it’s done really well. There’s a big demand for that.”
The company is looking ahead to how to meet future demands for that new product too. Campbell said that the farm currently sells the murasaki as a bulk No. 1 in 40-pound cases. “But we’re looking to possibly expand into a bagged item or a microwavable sweetpotato item with that variety. And we’re always open to what our customers are doing or new projects they might have in mind.”
Campbell said throughout her 15 years with Matthews Ridgeview Farms, she has seen a change in what drives change in agriculture. Rather than farm to table, the force of change recently has been “table to field.”
“Farmers have had to evolve with what’s going on in the rest of the industry,” she said. “Things change and specs change and what certain retailers are looking for change. It’s not as basic as it used to be.”
Campbell gave the example of, in the past, a grower could send a U.S. No. 1 sweetpotato to retailers — fairly basic and straightforward.
“Now you’ve got certain size specs and you have to evolve and have electronic sizing, which is what we did when we expanded back in 2018,” she said. “So, it’s really just changed from the outside and there’s a lot of technology in agriculture now, which helps things go a lot smoother. They are still hard workers, but we have had to evolve and work smarter.”
In keeping with the Arkansas produce trends, as Perez noted how hyperlocal growing and sourcing depends on relationships and community, Campbell described relationships as a key component of sustainability at Matthews Ridgeview Farms.
“Relationships are so important in the industry,” Campbell said. “Obviously there’s a lot of legal things and technical things and paperwork that keeps you sustainable, but most of all it’s the relationships that we have.”
