VGCC To Teach Farmers To Use Computers To Increase Their Market Competitiveness

It’s a fact: small and limited-resource farm families have to upgrade their operations in order to become more competitive in the marketplace.

Vance-Granville Community College is taking a step to help them achieve this by offering the Farmer Adopting Computer Training (FACT) program to area farmers.

Developed by the Cooperative Extension Program at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, FACT introduces and demonstrates innovative uses of computers and computerized farm management programs to small farmers and rural families. The FACT program even provides computers and software to farmers unable to purchase them.

Vance-Granville’s Computer Extension division has been chosen to provide the computer training to eligible farmers in Vance, Granville, Franklin and Warren counties. Instruction is divided into four classes, which will be held at VGCC’s main campus in Vance County for Vance and Granville participants and at its Franklin County and Warren County campuses for farmers in those counties.

The first class will be Introduction to Windows and the Internet and will consist of 30 hours of training. It will begin Nov. 1 at the main campus and Nov. 2 at the Franklin and Warren campuses. Classes will end on Dec. 15 and 16.

The second round of classes, in Word Process and Keyboarding, will begin Jan. 4 and end Feb. 15 on all campuses. The third class will be Electronic Spreadsheets with Excel and will run from Feb. 17 to March 22.

A fourth set of classes will be held on FarmWin and will be scheduled later at a time convenient to farmers. This is a farm management program developed by farmers for farmers to help them record and track all their farm activities so they will have all the information they need in one central place. It includes production records, field histories, inventory, income and expenses, and machinery usage, and all these facts can be reviewed at the click of a computer key.

FarmWin is designed to save time, simplify record-keeping and give high-quality information. This provides farmers more time to spend on farming and less time on administrative work.

Many small farmers may be older and reluctant to try new, technical forms of management, said Marcie Jones, an extension associate at N.C. A&T. However, since the program began at Sampson Community College, Jones said farmers in their 70s and 80s are attending and finding they are able to handle the classes and use their knowledge to better manage and market their crops.

Cooperative Extension offices in the four counties are assisting in recruiting eligible farmers for the computer classes. VGCC will customize training to reflect the specific interests of the students, said Ann Behar, the college’s coordinator of Computer Extension.

Area farmers interested in participating in the FACT program may contact their county Cooperative Extension office to determine eligibility and obtain more information about the program. Contacts are Wayne Rowland in Vance County, Tommy Brooks in Granville, Tracy Perry in Franklin and Jimmy Davis in Warren. Farmers may also contact Ann Behar at (252) 738-3417 for more information.