Imagine the Village of Los Ranchos is the Center of Excellence for regenerative urban agriculture in Central New Mexico. What does that look like?

AgriFutures Project

Aligning our AgriFuture started with NMSU, The Village of Los Ranchos, and a generous grant from The Thornburg Foundation.

The heart of the project is the Village of Los Ranchos Master Plan 2035 and to build trust within loosely connected networks then leverage those networks for collaborative action. This collaborative action will support the community and economic development by building capacity for leadership and advocacy.

We have completed Year 3 of the project and plan to continue this project further. This series leverages the Strategic Doing Process to get the community involved and achieve measurable outcomes.

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In Year 3, our teams were:

  • Agri-Nature Center Community Garden

  • Regenerative Agriculture

  • Economic Development and Agri-Tourism

  • Agri-Nature Center Soil and Water Testing Lab

Check out our Outcomes Presentation for a re-cap of our accomplishments.

Where Have We Been?

Re-Cap of Year I of Aligning our AgriFuture

The convenings started in August 2019 and held 5 more convenings (two virtual) with over 104 participants representing over 64 organization with 265 total attendance across the six convenings. You can view Year 1’s website here.

In year 1 our teams were:

  • Education and Youth

  • Next Generation

  • Agri-Tourism

  • Farming Resiliency

  • Community Connections

  • Crops and Orchards

Check out NMSU’s website with more information on Phase 1. Check out NMSU’s Report on the project.

Re-Cap of Year 2 of Creating our AgriFuture

Based on the Village of Los Ranchos Master Plan 2035 and the previous Aligning our AgriFuture series, we now have built up successful networks to create a vision for a very successful building and program for the village in agriculture at the Ag Center. We reviewed the teams from the first convenings and made adjustments going forward. As a result we changed the name for phase 2 to Creating our AgriFuture.

In year 2 our teams were:

  • Multigenerational Education and Workforce Development

  • Regenerative Agriculture

  • Economic Development and Agri-Tourism

  • Community Resources

  • Lean Farming and Profitability

  • Agri-Nature Center Land and Building Development


Key Accomplishments from Years I and 2:

  • Over 60 community partners actively engaged in creative projects

  • Received funds from Thornburg & ABQ Community Foundations

  • Created a Virtual Binder for teachers about school gardens

  • Established connections between Los Ranchos & Corrales

  • Collaborated with Los Poblanos and Rio Grande Community Farms

  • Designed & fabricated a wash station from shipping containers

  • Partnered with MRGCD to establish a soil & water testing lab

  • Presented a Healthy Soils Workshop for community learning

  • Collaborated with NMSU Extension on ag-related education