Our Projects

• Bio-Energy Crops/Biomass Management
• Carbon Sequestration
  
• Biochar Technology and Production
  
• Food Security/Community Farming
  
• Sustainability and Biochar Education
  
• Conservation/Forestry/Water/Soils/Wildlife
  
• Water, Soils, Wetlands Management
  
• EEP Streamside/Water Quality – Restoration
  
• USDA/NRCS Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) (3,380 acres)
  
• Long Leaf Pine Restoration/Afforestation (1,200 acres)
  
• Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program (WHIP)
  
• Landowners Incentive Program (LIP)
  
• Sustainable Farm Demonstrations
  
• Solar Power for Irrigation
• Sustainable Lodge Learning Center
  
• Producing Biochar through Pyrolysis - The NC Farm Center has received a grant for $538,317 from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to implement a three-year Biochar and Pyrolysis project at Valentine Farm. Matching funds contributed by private donors bring the project budget to $1.24 million. Biochar is a coal-like natural soil amendment that has been shown to improve the productivity and fertility of marginal soils, thereby increasing the productivity of crop and forest lands. Biochar is manufactured when biological wastes, such as crop residues or forest litter, are heated with little to no oxygen present, a process known as Pyrolysis. For this project, the Farm Center has purchased a mobile Pyrolysis machine to produce Biochar at Valentine Farm. Testing will be conducted to determine the effectiveness of using Biochar to enhance soils in southeastern North Carolina and improve yields of traditional crops, including corn and soybeans, produce and hay. The Biochar will also be tested on forest lands during a significant wetland restoration project that will involve the planting of more than 1.2 million native trees. 
• Community Farming - Using a recently awarded $49,800 grant from the N.C. Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, the NC Farm Center is developing a special community farming area on Valentine Farm, where individuals and families will be able to tend their own ¾-acre plots of land using sustainable farming techniques. Not only will they will be able to grow food for themselves and their families, they will have the opportunity to cultivate crops to sell at local farmers markets and restaurants. The project includes plans to develop a solar energy micro-irrigation system. Periodic meetings with the community farming members will also be conducted to gauge their needs, goals and aspirations for the community farm. The project, known as The NC Farm Center Community Farming for Food Security, is not a model, but an experience we hope inspires and encourages other landowners to reach out to under-served farming groups who may not have the opportunity—or the land—to engage in safe, natural, local food production.
• Conservation - A fully completed restoration of seven miles of Harrison Creek at Valentine Farm demonstrates how federal and state programs work more efficiently when combined with private farm conservation. A new wetlands restoration project will restore 3,340 acres of wetlands and natural streams at the farm. The NC Farm Center will work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to design and manage the extensive tree planting and sustainable water flow components.
• 3D Interactive Outreach - Partnering with Fayetteville Technical Community College in Fayetteville, N.C., the center will produce an educational Interactive 3D (i3d) N.C. Green Farm Case Study. This will allow a huge depository of information to be stored and projected in 3d format in order to educate and influence farmers, students, researchers and the public.
• Carbon Management - Another goal of the NC Farm Center is the development of a Carbon Offset Trading Program, in which the Center assembles a large, rural area network of landowners in order to access the market for extensive Carbon & Ecosystems Credit resources. The Center will help train farmers to manage their lands and natural resources in order to function as a storehouse for offsets of carbon and other potential eco-market assets or credits.