Farming is the Future at Hilltop Community Farm

CCE Tioga recently announced an award of a $525,000 grant from the USDA. On Nov. 15, 2022, the USDA announced that it would invest $24 million toward 45 organizations that teach and train beginning farmers; included in those 45 organizations was Cornell Cooperative Extension Tioga’s incubator farm program at Hilltop Community Farm. These grant funds will be used by Hilltop Community Farm (HCF) to launch a farm incubator program for beginning farmers.  

“Access to land is a barrier for many beginning farmers,” says CCE Tioga’s Executive Director, T Hanson. “We’re helping beginning farmers develop their complete farm business plan so that they will have the experience necessary to succeed and the end of the incubator term.”  

In 2021 CCE Tioga purchased a 107-acre farm in Candor, N.Y. and officially named it Hilltop Community Farm. One of the primary goals of HCF is to serve as a farm incubator for beginning farmers and as a model for regenerative agriculture techniques and systems. 

The vision is to host diverse set of aspiring farmers working the land using regenerative techniques, learning from on-site mentors as well as experienced local farmers, Cornell staff and researchers, and from each other in a mutually beneficial system, according to CCE, and this three-year grant from the USDA will help HCF to lower the barriers to entry for beginning farmers, provide training and assist successful incubator farmers transition to their own land. 

HCF closed the first round of Incubator Farmer applications last week and is excited to welcome the first cohort of beginning farmers in the spring of 2023. You can learn more about CCE Tioga, Hilltop Community Farm and the Beginning Farmer Incubator Program on their website at tioga.cce.cornell.edu.