2009 ANR Plans
From Extension Collaborative Wiki
4. What new initiatives do you intend to pursue in 2009/2010?
University of Tennessee Extension
Beef Cattle Improvement. Extension plans to develop a more in-depth beef educational program for producers who have completed the master beef producer and beef quality assurance programs.
Organics. We will launch a food safety initiative that includes on-farm practices, audits, record keeping, and trace back methods.
Tennessee Yards and Neighborhoods(TYN). Following up on a successful single community trial in 2008-09, we plan to initiate this program in five metro counties in partnership with the TN Water Resources Center, Master Gardeners, TVA and local stormwater managers with funding from an EPA 319 grant. Based on the results of the initial program, the state will accept TYN as meeting the community education/action requirements of MS4 permits.
Value Added Agriculture. We will focus efforts of our Center for Profitable Agriculture in a 10 county rural area to help farm families captuer a larger share of the consumer dollar through processing, packaging and marketing.
Extramural Funding. Extension will partner with AgResearch and the College to hire three pre-award specialists to assist faculty prepare more and more competitive proposals.
University of Kentucky
A water quality working group for agents is planned for this fall. The intent of the group is to provide feedback to the new water quality specialist and to make agents more aware of water quality issues.
Agents are working with producers to adjust to changes in the Model Program concept previously used to develop programs for the Kentucky Agricultural Development Funds to the County Agricultural Investment Program, a program designed to encourage more diversity in production.
ANR Specialist will provide more online training using Centra or other programs to reduce agents travel. Opportunities for more online courses for Masters Degrees for agents are being explored.
University of Florida
- The Florida Climate Institute –Creating an institute to address Judicious application of new climate information products that will offer Florida’s citizens and decision-makers opportunities to: Build adaptive capacity and resilience to long-term climate change and seasonal climate variability; Establish new markets and marketing tools for agriculture and forest industries; Reduce demands for energy, water, and carbon resources by using them more efficiently; Better manage climate-related risks; Incorporate climate projections over different planning horizons into plans for developing and managing water resources, agriculture, and natural ecosystems. This enhances the programs of the SECC.
NC A&T State University With our new Kellogg Endowed Chair, we plan on pursuing a statewide collaboration on Local Sustainable Food Systems.
