The Small Farm Tech Expo, held at UC Merced, brought together a diverse group of stakeholders in agriculture, including researchers, farmers, university students, and even young learners from a Modesto elementary school. The event, sponsored by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) for the fifth consecutive year, aimed to explore the role of agricultural technology in supporting small-scale farmers.
The expo featured a range of activities, including equipment demonstrations, educational sessions on both hardware and software, panel discussions, and presentations from support organizations. These activities highlighted the available technologies and resources for small farmers, who often face challenges in accessing advanced agricultural technologies that are more readily available to larger farming operations.
Leigh Bernacchi, executive director of the Valley Institute for Sustainability, Technology and Agriculture at UC Merced, emphasized the importance of supporting small farmers. “The small farmer does everything,” Bernacchi said. “They prep, plant, nourish, care, protect, harvest, restore land, package, sell, haul and price. They need help and we need to all contribute to support small farmers.”
To address this need, CAFF launched its Small Farms Innovation Challenge, designed to compensate innovators for their agtech solutions tailored to small farms. Additionally, CAFF released a report on small farm technology needs to guide innovators in developing relevant solutions.
One of the notable presentations at the expo was on agrivoltaics, a concept that combines agriculture and solar energy production. Other sessions included a farmer discussion on upcoming challenges and an introduction to the lending library offered through University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR) and F3 Local, based at the ag research and extension center in Parlier.
Amber Butland, the lending library coordinator, explained that the library is available for farmers operating under 50 acres in Fresno, Tulare, Kings, Madera, or Merced counties. The program offers a variety of equipment, such as compost spreaders, tractors, seeders, and weeders, which can be borrowed for one to four days after completing training. The library even includes a Gather robot, designed to transport crops, which follows the operator with the push of a button.
Another workshop invited farmers to share the challenges they face in their operations. Issues raised included laying down plastic and cutting holes for strawberry plants, picking citrus from hillside orchards, and harvesting lavender. These insights will inform the next meeting of SF-ADAPT, a program through Farms Food Future Local that connects small-scale farmers with researchers, nonprofits, and technologists to create practical tools for smaller farms.
Marissa Johnson, agricultural outreach specialist with UCANR, emphasized the need for technology that is simple, effective, and easy to implement. “We are looking at technology that is simple, effective and easy to implement,” Johnson said, “and that farmers can build and repair themselves.”
UC Merced, situated in the heart of the Central Valley, is well-positioned to help farmers address their challenges. Bernacchi envisions a future where farmers have the necessary tools, researchers find cost-effective ways to pull carbon from the atmosphere and return it to the soil, and workers can find a career path that supports their families. “I see bots roam and enable sustainable practices, and UC Merced students act like the Geek Squad to come and repair equipment, where no child is hungry, where every child is full of nutritious food grown by farmers, real people,” Bernacchi said. “Continue to work with us as we build the future of agriculture.”
The Small Farm Tech Expo highlighted the critical role of technology in supporting small-scale farmers and the ongoing efforts to make advanced agricultural technologies more accessible. By fostering collaboration between farmers, researchers, and innovators, the event aimed to pave the way for a more sustainable and productive future in agriculture.