delgado is the executive director and co founder of the national immigrant farming initiative and if he was initiated by a joint effort of heifer international u s d a r m a and kellogg foundation in response to the growing numbers of experienced immigrant refugee farmers and farm workers in the usa dr delgado's academic background includes a ph d in extension and adult education with minors in rural sociology and international agriculture and a masters degree in extension education with a minor in communications both degrees from cornell university in new york he also has a bachelor of science degree in agronomy from college of agriculture or monoliths escobar where he returned to teach sociology and community development and corn coordinated the interim american science and humanities program years overseeing and developing many projects in the colonias along the texas mexico border delgado is a native of the border region he grew up in new mexico he cared for all types of animals from chickens to go it's to pigs a dairy cow and rabbits on his family farm as well as his very busy career he has also devoted considerable time and resources to adapting organic agricultural practices to the harsh conditions of the desert southwest del farms is one of the first hispanic farms in texas to be certified organic the principles of sharing and caring while helping farmers and their families to help themselves have guided his personal and professional commitments today he will share with us the contributions of immigrants refugee farmers and farm workers to rural development please join me in welcoming dr have a problem with interpreters because i always to speak very slow anyway saw their way to me so i'm go talk a little about the nature and all immigrant farming initiative there was founded in two thousand and two because we sole the grating that immigrant farmers have in this country we saw the last census and notice that we were for several reasons for one the farmers are eighteen and according to the census the last census in the one wee soul back in two thousand  we were a sheen and our kids don't want to follow the footsteps of the parents the every each in the last census of the small farmers it's fifty seven years of age and then the same and the five years and older farmers are retiring and they grew on twenty percent while their children and the younger generation decrease long thirty percent women increase all saw in thirty percent which is great to have women many gene da the the number of operators high said decreasing thirty the young generation in around the country family farms and small scale operations face a president that  shelling just as you know in the struggle for by ability and place in contemporary agriculture you know that failure for farmers seen the next three years and the question remains where are we going to replace them with so growing our food nowadays the growing farming and ranching population as we saw in two thousand and two is that refugees are immigrant farmers and the farm workers as you know all seventy percent of the farm workers were born abroad so that also speaks to the importance of our farm workers that are producing our food in most of the immigrant farmers and refugees come with an experience in farming from their countries and they come with a dream and patient to farmers and in many success stories we see that as they learn their methodology from the asian family farmers they replace them as they retire so that's another growing sector that we also will work with so for the also us that care about food beginning farmers in this country the new american farmers and we know all that the history of this country is based on immigrant soil it's repeating itself as we see bought is a common with expert negri culture our system is not easy to understand so one of the missions that we have is to explain by training the new immigrants on our programs what do they need they need land for one camp told credit training advocacy because in many instances they don't speak english or we speak with an accent an old oh they're educated we don't refugees and we are advocating for them so that they can fit into our system does that means that out of a collection of persons immigrant persons mostly but we also are open to minorities in general we've facilitate the process by which they name their own project they tell us about their expectations and we facilitate the process for them to based on false expectations develop them in to measure bold objectives and after that we know that everything has rules even though football game or baseball game you need to have rules so they next based on their desperations begin to develop their own b and name once they have that in place there are reports and it takes for that particular group and because they already have their objective seem place in their goals to do it we move on to have their budget how much money that you need for each one of those like they would use for each one of those objectives and based on that they come out with a budget at one point at the beginning they old soul vision themselves how do they want to be five years from now and based on that they put together out there of their work together in that process as they develop for one ownership because they put a name to their project is not me if he is nobody else but themselves are there the owners in many cases they have not be long to a group before saw they developed that sense of belonging among themselves and so they own it they put their own rules and that's why they're in the way to successful farming training big dance even before we approve the project for funding that's a sensual as they develop we also do want to need feed us not do what people can do for themselves because we put we try to help them to getting the direction of self sufficiency that's why we also promote region all those projects partners meetings we called the farmers our projects i we're partners because that's one of the partnerships but on the other side we also build partnerships with other institutional groups like extension agent in almost every county that we work with with with example or the north east we also partner with an institutional like the department of agriculture like in the case of the navajo is we also partner with them with their department of agriculture that they received during the year so that's why we make it annual and you know all that in many instances just getting the people together like in this conference we learned new things some from the priest and nurse but also all from other participants to that conference so that's an important way of sharing for each other and experiences and they get to know each other and build up friendship among our partners immigrant and in minority farmers experience this new ideas that come back and implement them in their own operation are you can fertilize your soil and increase your soil and the quality of it with chickens and then controlled pests and old soul keep the weeds down so they they bring day so he the family self sufficient in naik's and later has surplus to sell to other neighbors then sending extra income some others  she's saw that integration of animals darning and agriculture i think is very important calm and and check up pine cart and begin to peel off that little feathers that were left by the father or their parents out of that that chicken and pass it on to their in oregon and and the leader of the project margaret eat though it's also a very dedicated immigrant farmer to develop man and it's and i'm on arming great just to give you an example we're losing more than an acre off farm land every we continue the strand summed regions of the country we lose the last acre farm land by twenty sixty now this is it and soul is we in very successful less money we came to integrate open pharmacies market for the for the families in fails me here so that's another success story that we're there we're cultivating and of course working with the immigrant farmers it's such a rewarding experience and and we even get paid for doing it so there's the other advantage