Rob:  With something as simple as a piece of plastic, some small Oklahoma farmers can extend their growing season and improve their bottom line.  It’s called “plasticulture,” and it’s a new program Oklahoma’s Department of Agriculture believes can make small scale farmers more competitive in the marketplace.
Rob:  With the roar of a tractor, Micah Anderson could be laying the future of agriculture.  Anderson is helping local farmers with plasticulture, a method of planting which increases yield and shortens the time it takes produce to grow.
Micah Anderson:  It works great for people who don’t have huge amounts of land.  If you only have two or three acres, you can grow an acre of vegetables and make money.
Rob:  Anderson is the market development coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture and says the program helps limited resource farmers who don’t have a lot of land to work with.
Anderson:  It’s a way of getting more production in a smaller area, or just maximizing your production period.
Rob:  Owning her own day-care, Rochelle King wanted to grow fresh vegetables for her youngsters; and thanks to the help from Anderson, she now has a garden and a second career.
Rochelle King:  And how they could lay plastic, and it wouldn’t take as much work, and I had hurt my wrist earlier, so I thought that I would never be able to do a garden again.  But with that concept, I thought that I would give it a chance.  And it did really well last year, and so we’re expanding it this year.
Rob:  From one acre last year to four acres this year, an expansion she hopes will allow her to sell her produce to her neighbors and local grocery stores.
Anderson:  And that’s what we like to see, is somebody getting in the program, and then it being able to benefit them. 
Rob:  Kris Kirby works with farmers in urban areas and says this new technology allows small farmers like Rochelle to be competitive in an industry that’s always changing.
Kris Kirby:  We’ve even had some farmers that have been so impressed with it, they’ve even purchased their own machines of plasticulture to be able to lay for them and then also help their fellow farmers that are out there too.
Rob:  Helping lay the groundwork for small farmers around the state.