REEL SOUTH

[ambient music] DR. TOMEKIA WHITE: In the Black community, there's this misconception when you say agriculture, they say slavery.

I watched my grandfather how hard he worked.

He had to work two jobs just to make ends meet every day until he retired.

The grandkids and my uncle, and my dad always assisted with farmers, but you go to a big farm, they got all types of laborers doing different jobs.

But the minority farmer, they don't have that.

Most times, minority farmers they can't get the same loans.

They can't get the same opportunities.

I did not want to go into Ag.

When I started doing research, I started meeting other farmers, big farmers, seeing how productive they were.

I'm like, wow, why aren't these resources available for African-American farmers?

I currently oversee the water quality and quantity research here, at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, in the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Human Science.

I've made my job to know everything that's available for a farmer and take that information to the Black farmer.

So they can be more productive.

That's my vision.

That's my goal.

What I'm currently looking at is getting farmers to adopt climate smart practices.

Arkansas being number one in the US and number three in the world in rice production, we use a lot of water.

We're on the verge of depleting our aquifers.

There's no more room to wait on getting this problem resolved.

We really have to come up with these alternative ways to conserve our water.

How are we going to do that?

We're going to have to reach our farmers.

Again, how are we going to do that?

We have to win their trust.

We're going to have to put some type of incentive out there, so they'll be willing to try it.

We've been writing different grants, trying to get funding for climate-smart practices.

I first met Mr. Conyers through the Discovery Farm.

I was with a group of graduate students that started water quality monitoring for Arkansas.

I was able to defend my thesis utilizing Mr. Conyers farm.

And in the process of doing that, Mr. Conyers won Farmer of the year.

I've written a grant with Mr. Conyers.

And in the grant I included soil moisture sensors and also an irrigation system set up.

This will tell Mr. Conyers how much water he needs to use.

And so that will cut down on over usage.

The only way we're going to conserve the land and conserve water, everybody is going to have to get on board with those available resources.

It's going to help them conserve.

The good thing about Mr. Conyers, he's well respected around here, and he allowed us to bring in other farmers and train.

They see what he's doing and he's being productive.

Then we can educate those small farmers.

LAWRENCE CONYERS: The other farmers.

DR. TOMEKIA WHITE: What they can do to conserve.

This can give them hope.

We don't have that many Black farmers now.

- Usually when we found out about the different programs, different practices that we can do to our land, it's when it's too late.

- Mr. Conyers is a minority farmer, but I also have two big farmers up in Lonoke.

And I see their operations that are 100 years old.

Well, African-Americans, they weren't able to do what they do.

I want to see us be productive.

My programs that I'm implementing is to reach those and educate those minority farmers, but the first thing is building the trust.

And I'm just be honest, it's going to take more people like me, that look like me, for one.

I'm the 1890 scholarship coordinator here on campus.

And so, I speak to a lot of youth.

And it's hard to give away the money, give money to pay for four years of college.

They just do not want to go into agriculture.

Our goal with this program is to get more minority students involved.

You don't see many minorities in this picture.

In the Black community, a lot of kids just have lost hope.

This is a program that we have every summer that's sponsored by USDA APHIS.

And it's called Ag Discovery.

And this program is from ages 14 to 17.

They usually choose about 20 students, and they take them to all the government agencies, the different farms and all that different stuff.

So this is the program that my husband is over.

This is my husband right here and my daughter.

She's a twin, right here.

And this is our scholarship program.

Of course, my daughter, she's in the top tier and she's a 4.0 student here.

[music playing] As she began to see me in her dad work in the field, how we were helping the farmers, she went to a day of service that we sponsored at the university.

I'm taking pictures like this girl is really in the soil, in the dirt, you know.

And so, she end up saying, mom, I want to change my major.

But change it to what?

I think I'm go in ag.

I think-- They almost called 911 because I-- MORGAN WHITE: This summer I had my first internship with the Soil Health Institution.

So while I was there, I was basically learning about the chemical, the physical, and the biology aspects of soil.

But also on the research side, we wanted to figure out like how are minority farmers missing out on so much information.

So we studied as well like what type of information is already out there.

Are they able to understand the information that is out there that is being given?

So going back into my major, which is regulatory science, it's my job to be their voice.

So I want to be able to change policies and regulations to be able to make sure that it's fair to all minority farmers.

So now, me being in the new generation, it's my job to be that voice for them and be able to speak on the behalf of them to make a change within the United States of America.

DR. TOMEKIA WHITE: You know, you may think that children are not listening or learning, but it made us proud as parents that she was listening.

- If you want to reach your agriculture goals of the future, you're going to have to invest into the youth of today.

There will be no culture if it wasn't for-- - Agriculture.

[laughter] - I've always said that I didn't want to go in the ag, and I was going to stay away from ag, but I married ag.

- I always looked at farmers as people that can do it all.

They were, of course, agronomists, they were veterinarians, they were mechanics because they fixed tractors themselves.

They could do a little bit of everything.

DR. TOMEKIA WHITE: You know, now that I see through his eyes, I didn't see that at first.

I saw farming as work.

[music playing] MAN: I'm one of the greatest.

[side conversation] DR. TOMEKIA WHITE: We have to get our young people more involved.

It's going to take us to change the misconception, because we know our culture and we know the historical events that have happened in the past.

The first thing is building that trust.

[music playing] - [Announcer] Support for "Reel South" is provided by the ETV Endowment and the National Endowment for the Arts.

And South Arts.