In order to better understand the educational and vocational training needs of future farmers in the rapidly expanding greenhouse and vertical farm sector (controlled environment agriculture, or CEA), Cornell University worked with The Ohio State University and Agritecture Consulting to conduct a workshop with current CEA professionals. This workshop, specifically structured using the designing a curriculum or DACUM approach, was held at the innovative co-working space Prime Produce in Manhattan on May 7 and 8, 2019.
Twelve CEA experienced expert practitioners—ten from across the United States, one from the Netherlands, and one from Canada—convened for two days to brainstorm, debate, and finalize a list of duties (responsibilities, such as “manage crop production” or “manage farm labor”) and tasks (specific activities, such as “create crop production plans” or “gather production data”) that outline the activities of the expert Indoor Farm Operations Manager. The DACUM Research Chart for Indoor Farm Operations Manager provides an industry-led foundation for discussing gaps and opportunities in existing indoor agriculture curricula at Cornell and beyond.
The next step was to validate the Chart with a much larger pool of CEA professionals. This survey was conducted in the fall of 2019 and confirmed that other CEA professionals agree with the duty and task lists generated by the DACUM panelists.
Today, the INFEWS team is moving into the next stage, task analysis, during which specific tasks will be analyzed by focus groups of CEA professionals, including some of our DACUM panelists and some new industry interlocutors. The goal will be to analyze each task, breaking it down into component steps: specific physical actions that are measurable and thus teachable.
For more information or to get involved with the INFEWS team’s work on expanding the DACUM chart into a more detailed strategic document outlining what curriculum for a CEA operations manager best fits the needs of this growing industry, please reach out to Anu Rangarajan: ar47@cornell.edu