Youth farming program helps grow the future of local youth through agriculture

ANTHONY, New Mexico (KVIA) - Farming is part of the agricultural identity of New Mexico, something the Anthony Youth Farm organization has been working to pass onto the next generation for 26 years.

Board President Jose Terones currently runs the program, recruiting kids through community outreach with Gadsden Independent School District and Doña Ana County for the program that runs on a semester-based schedule.

"We hire youth here from the local community, high risk kids, and we run them through a program to instill leadership skills," Terones said. "And to give them an another opportunity to teach them through agriculture how to become leaders in our community."

An important part of that, he says, is through education.

"We have professors from NMSU and UTEP come here to teach them about water, soil, farming and how to plant, harvest and package," Terones said. "We teach them marketing skills to sell the produce they have grown and basically how to run an entrepreneurship business."

Along the way, Terones says things have been tweaked to make it what it is today.

"The whole program started back in 2000, and it's developed through the years," he said. "From how to put together a full program including an educational program together to creating infrastructure here. Now we have a building, equipment, an irrigation system and even a produce cleaning system."

Terones said this helps the youth farm have a positive impact on the community of Anthony.

"We've seen kids here that have been in gangs, and this gives them an opportunity to stay busy before or after school," he said. "They come in here, they learn, earn some money, and it gives them an opportunity instead of being out in the streets or getting into trouble. It opens their eyes to what further education is out there."

By opportunity, he doesn't just mean farming, but developing skills to help them in any career they may have.

"Not everybody will be a farmer, but eventually we show them what other opportunities there are in life and try to develop those leadership skills that they would need," Terones said.

For the kids that do want a future in farming, he says they get their head start learning the techniques modern farming requires.

"Farming has changed in a lot of ways, the biggest is how we use our water," Terones said. "We've come up with techniques that make irrigation more efficient...Some of those are drip irrigation, instead of flooding our fields, we use drip tape and put it in our beds so it's more efficient."

The program is a few months long and has a lot of interest in the area as Terones said they get up to 100 applications, but he also they're selective.

"We select between 20 to 25 kids per semester, and then also through the summer," he said.

You can visit Anthony Youth Farm's facebook page or go to their website anthonyyouthfarmnm.org if you're interested in getting more information.