Progress report for SOK22-001
Project Information
The Oklahoma SARE PDP engages in an active cooperative commitment between Langston University, Oklahoma State University and the College of the Muscogee Nation to encourage and further the sustainability of Oklahoma agriculture by promoting the economic viability, sound environmental practices and natural resource management along with bringing awareness and recognition of social responsibility to Oklahoma. This Plan of Work will be proactive in promoting prior programming efforts. The goal of the program is to integrate and increase sustainable and regenerative practices in both mainstream and alternative agricultural endeavors of our state while enhancing the quality of our natural resources and the rural way of life. Objectives remain to train agricultural professionals (Land Grant, federal/state agencies, and NGOs) and mentor farmers in the concepts and best management practices of regenerative and sustainable agriculture as well as disseminating educational materials through various outlets. Our program initiatives focus on: integrating sustainable practices into daily agricultural operations; management and enhancement of soil and water quality; integrated resource management for large and small scale livestock, horticulture and agronomic enterprises; production and marketing of organic crops; and production/marketing for community-based organizations. Training will be provided through attendance at national, regional and local workshops and trainings, demonstrations, tours, research presentations, online and small group in-service trainings. Evaluation will be accomplished through feedback on the effectiveness of these various trainings and programs using the OkSARE Logic Model. The results will be discussed in the OkSARE Annual Report.
1.) Concepts such as cover cropping, no-till/minimum tillage, crop rotations and rotational grazing will be included in training made available to one hundred agricultural educators. a) In 2022-23, the training provided to these educators was offered through the OSU Winter Crop School, the Red River Farming Conference and regional/county workshops held in various locations around Oklahoma.
2.) Twenty agriculture professionals were able to provide information and education on organic production and marketing of agricultural products. a.) In 2022-23, this will be accomplished through attendance at the Oklahoma Market Garden School and the Horticulture Industry Show. There was a continuance of the monthly in-service meetings which encourage the establishment of honey bee colonies to support pollinators and provide new and alternative products for producers in our state. The Organic Cover Crop project down at Lane, OK which was established to investigate the possibility of honeybee management on organic farms entered it's third and final year in 2022-23.
3.) Forty educators received training on community-based markets for fruit and vegetable production. a) In 2022-23, this was accomplished through the Market Garden Training, a Tribal initiative training, Educator attendance at the Horticulture Industry Show and the Langston University Small Farms Conference.
4.) Eighty agricultural professionals were able to provide the latest information with respect to the environmentally sound management of natural resources - especially water, soil and air. a) In 2022-23, this was achieved through the OSU Winter Crop School, the Panhandle Crops Clinic, the Red River Crop School, and the Oklahoma Master Irrigation Conference.
5.) Twenty stakeholders are better prepared to assist and provide technical direction for producer driven research and on-farm demonstration activities through producer program granting opportunities such as the USDA and SARE. a) In 2022-23, this continued to be encouraged through the distribution of Educator Kits containing information for the SARE, ODAFF and USDA granting programs.
7.) Fifty professional were trained in sustainable and regenerative livestock practices to include beef, poultry and goat production for both large and small scale producers.
a) In 2022-23, this was addressed through the Oklahoma State University Meat Goat Boot Camp and the Langston University Goat Conference programs as well as rotational grazing presentations at the Red River Crop School the OSU Winter Crop School. OkSARE will continue to be available to work with the NIFA Sustainable Ag systems Grant entitled “ Enhancing livestock production from rangelands in the great plains” to facilitate training on multi-species patch burn grazing strategies.
Advisors
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Education
The activities outlined herein that were supported by the Oklahoma Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Professional Development Program embrace a directed teaching format. This format involves a designated speaker (or panel) presenting information to a group of attendees. This format is utilized in both a classroom setting and a tour/field setting. In both, the speaker (or instructor) discusses data supported by examples (photos, graphs, charts or actual physical specimens) to explain a concept. Experience (and attendee feedback) continues to indicate that the audience tends to gain more understanding when physical specimens are presented. This is why short courses, small groups and field tours tend to be very appreciated by our agricultural professionals. “Hands on” type learning is generally more effective for us versus a “theory only” program. Many of our program offerings also included an online format to accommodate those who couldn't travel or were still more comfortable with limiting public interactions. Most of these meetings utilized Zoom, YouTube and podcasts. It should be noted that accommodations were made for meetings held under controlled conditions. Arrangements were made to provide ppe in the form of masks, sanitizing products, individual sets of educational materials, and social distancing (indoors and outdoors) as attendees requested. As there were plenty of opportunities for electronic instruction, the OkSARE PDP continued several previous training initiatives designed to encourage the establishment of a successful honeybee production demonstrations at the county and area level. These outdoor locations provided an outlet for producers to tour/visit on their own schedule. Our program participants have also expressed appreciation for the Southern SARE printed publications which we continue to make available free of charge through the auspices of the Southern SARE office.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
To Encourage participation in trainings related to sustainable agriculture concepts such as cover cropping,
conservation tillage and crop rotations aimed at reducing fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide inputs as well as
encouraging pollinators.
In 2022, we saw a continuance of much of the programming that has been supported by OkSARE in the
past. Most of these trainings offered a combination of in-person trainings as well as online components in
order to maximize the footprint of their outreach. This made these programs available to a wider audience and
enable those that are unable to travel to still benefit from the best management practices presented at these
meetings. These programs were as follows:
- OSU Winter Crop School
- Muskogee Creek Nation Outreach Program
- Various presentations made at training events around the state include:
- Warren, J.G. Water Requirements for Wheat. Presented at the Alfalfa County Wheat Tour May 9, and the Beaver County Wheat tour May 24.
- Warren, J.G. Soil Health Assessment Tools. Presented at the Fall Soil Health Training. Sept. 1.
- Warren, J.G. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Cropping Systems. Presented at the Caddo Peanut and Cotton Field Day. Sept. 15.
- Warren, J.G. Irrigation Management. Presented at the McCaull Sorghum Field Day Aug. 24, and Tipton Sorghum Field Day Aug. 26.
- Warren, J.G. 2022. Environmental carbon potential. Presented at the Winter Crops School. Dec. 15.
- Warren, J. 2023, Soil Properties impacting water dynamics, presented at the Colorado and Master Irrigators Program Jan. 6.
* The OSU Winter Crop School was held on December 13th thru 15th in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The meeting has become an extremely popular program drawing agriculture professionals from a multi-state area each year. This year there were 95 Certified Crop Advisors from Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. There were an additional 35 Extension personnel from Oklahoma and Kansas. There were 10 speakers and 40 participants on-line for a grand total of 180 attending. The majority of the presentations can be accessed at the link below.....
The speaker line up and topics presented were....
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- Soil Organic Matter:
Dr. Whitaker - A review of Soil Organic Matter and its many roles in Agriculture
Dr. Jilling – Potential consequences and unknown benefits of sugar applications Dr. Wade - Using soil health indicators to make\management decisions Soil Water Conservation: Tillage and covers. Dr. Warren – Environmental carbon potential
Dr. De Laune - Making sense of cover crops in semi-arid environments
Grace Ogden – Sweep tillage impact on soil health Soil Water Conservation: Soil, Water, Microbial System.
Dr. Fultz – Microbiology relationship with systems management and production impacts
Tom Roth – Evaluation of Paired Watersheds in Kansas.
Dr. Ochsner - Soil-plant-atmosphere monitoring stations for cropland Integrated Weed Management:
Grace Ogden – Controlling tumble windmill grass with sweep tillage
Jenny Dudak - Introduction of Axant Flex technology in cotton
Zack Treadway - Residual Herbicide Programs in Oklahoma Soybean Dr. Baughman - Where We Are and Where We Might Be Going Focus on Forage:
Dr. Tucker - Alfalfa-Bermudagrass Systems: Lessons from the Field
Alayna Gerhardt- Low Lignin Alfalfa
Dr. Finch – Bermudagrass Fertility Management Crop Production:
Dr. Basara – Weather forecasting tools and outlook
Dr. Porter – The Future Direction of On-Farm Autonomy
Dr. Raper - Heat unit use and refinement in U.S. cotton Nutrient Management:
Bryan Rutter – Impact of soil sample handling on soil test results and interpretation
Dr. Lofton – Double Crop Corn Fertility. Dr. Arnall – Nutrient Management Post Drought. - *The Muskogee Creek Nation Outreach Program has been supported through the disbursement of SARE printed materials on soil health, cover crops and pollinator management. To date, 125 publications have been made available to that program.
- Soil Organic Matter:
Assist in trainings that will provide information and education with respect to the sound management of natural
resources-especially water, soil and air.
In 2022, OkSARE continued to promote trainings that addressed irrigation issues specifically to deal with the shifting climate and depletion and quality of the available water for agriculture. These programs were...
*The Master Irrigators Program began in January and met weekly concluding in February in Goodwell, Oklahoma at the Panhandle Research Station.
*The OkSARE PDP program has sponsored the design and production of portable sprayer arrays that can be used to teach the proper calibration, maintenance and use of different sprayer nozzles under variable climate conditions.
*OkSARE provided administrative support and speaker participation for the Oklahoma Master Irrigators program aimed at providing intensive training on irrigation management followed on farm demonstrations of sensors and energy and water efficiency audits aimed at increases sustainable irrigation management.
*Additionally, in 2022 the OkSARE program developed a demonstration program for calculating spraying efficiency. To date, this has involved building two units that can be transported to various trainings across the entire extension system and other outreach opportunities to demonstrate spray patterns, drift and volume calculations for different nozzles in a small re-circulating system. The sprayer arrays have become extremely popular at the various venues and trainings where they have been exhibited and demonstrated. To date, the arrays (see photos below) have been used at the Early Spring Roundup in Marietta Oklahoma in February, the Forage Foundations course held in Shawnee in March, the Beef Summit held in Purcell in early April and the Oklahoma Farm Show which took place in mid April in Oklahoma City. It should be noted that this array has been viewed by almost 750 attendees at these venues.
To provide information and education on organic (certified and non-certified) production and the marketing of these
agricultural products and encouraging the exploration of new and alternative farm products.
In the 2022 cycle, OkSARE continued to support the production of organic and alternative products. This
will be accomplished through several programs that have been identified by our Advisory Committee members. The tribal training initiative through Langston University will offer information on heirloom varieties for organic production as well as food preservation and seed saving.
*The Educator Honey Bee Production Program has established training sites for Educators to learn the best management practices of honey bee production to enable producers to expand their offering of farm products. This also aids in pollinator management and encourages the reduction of herbicide/pesticide usage in areas of honey production.
*The Tribal Training Initiative works to encourage the development and marketing of horticultural farm products. This includes food handling, food preservation and seed saving.
*The Langston University Small Farms Field Day
*The OSU Women in Ag and Small Business Conference worked to create a learning opportunity that would appeal to women involved in all aspects of the agricultural industry.
*The yearly report of the 2023 Honey Bee Project is as follows.....
The OSU SARE honey bee project has been quite an educational event. One thing is for sure and that there is still a lot that we need to learn about raising bees and producing honey. Raising honey bees is not as simple as purchasing bees and collecting the honey. There are several management practices that need to be performed as well as observations that need to be done. Even still the bees may not produce honey, stick around or survive.
Project Summary
In April 2021, eight bee hives were put out across Oklahoma in the care of that local county educator or specialist. The educator/specialist and location of these hives are as follows:
- Ada – Dr. Barry Whitworth
- Kellyville – Olivia Toothman
- Hobart – Travis Tacker
- Enid – Trent Milacek (2 hives)
- Oklahoma City – Josh Campbell
- Walters – Kim Davis
- Stillwell – Jennifer Patterson (This hive was originally put around Tahlequah but was lost and moved to Stillwell.)
2022 Summary by Hive
Ada – In 2021 the hive in Ada tried to swarm on two different occasions. Both attempts were caught and put back into the hive. In an attempt to keep them from swarming the hive was re-queened. The re-queening did not work. The hived swarmed again and this time was not captured. The plan in 2023 is to capture a wild swarm and place into the OSU hive. The thought is that native bees are more likely to stay and survive that purchased bees.
Kellyville - As of December 30th, the hive is well. This hive was the only hive to produce honey in 2022. About 12 one pound jars was produced. Plans for 2023 include potentially splitting the hive into my observation hive. The observation hive is a 5 frame nuc, with a 6th frame that can be viewed. To do this, I will either need to purchase a new queen, or wait for them to raise one. Ideally if I purchase one, I would be able to travel with the observation hive if needed, right away. In the month+/- that it takes to raise a queen it will be out of commission. The split will not last long in the observation hive, as they will run out of room fast, unless I rotate empty frames in, which may become too much work, but at some point they will need moved into a regular hive.
Hobart - The hive in Hobart seemed to be going well all spring and summer. Sugar water was added towards the end of the summer with it being so hot and dry because I didn’t know how much food they were finding in the area. I did a program for the local library and removed a frame with some honey and bees on it, put it in a demonstration box we had here at the office and the people at the program were able to see the bees moving around on the frame. October I checked the bees and they were gone from that box. I have another hive with a swarm I caught right next to the OSU hive and they are still there and doing well. I will hopefully be able to replace the OSU bees or catch another swarm this next spring.
Enid – Hive 1 came into winter strong with 8 frames containing honey and 7 seams of bees. I had high hopes for this colony but a winter wind storm removed the lid and they froze with ample stores. Hive 2 came into winter weaker with similar honey but 4 frames of bees. They were running low on honey in january so I transferred 7 frames from lost colony to Hive 2 that still contained honey. I have not treated for mites this winter as colony does not appear to carry a heavy mite load. With added honey they should be set until spring.
Oklahoma City - The hive was lost in 2022. However, I have been working with a volunteer who has agreed to assist me with managing the hive, and has plans to reestablish a hive in 2023. Master gardeners planted a pollinator planting belt nearby to the hive location in 2022 fall. In addition, one of the participants who took the Oklahoma County Extension Bee workshop in April 2022 reached out to me telling me that he and his wife took the class last spring. His wife passed away in the summer of 2022 and he wants to memorialize her by honoring her interest in beekeeping. He is planning to donate bees and additional hives and wants to help manage them and include some signage in her honor. Details are still coming together on this.
Walters – This hive was lost in 2021 and reestablished in 2022. The bees are still going strong. We saw temperatures get as low as 9 degrees in December but yesterday we were able to confirm that the hive was still alive. In November we put the honey box on and covered the frames with newspaper and poured 5lbs of sugar on it. They have eaten half of the sugar we put out but our not building comb in the top area. With the high temperatures they are out foraging. They found the Walters FFA Pig Barn and were foraging on some spilt corn dust. We cleaned up the barn and sprinkled Cinnamon around the barn. Cinnamon is said to help hogs digestive systems and of course we know bees hate the smell. It seems to be doing the trick and they are foraging other places. We did not wrap the hive instead we tarped it to give it a wind break from the North Wind. That tarp in two months has been shredded and is being replaced. All of my staff enjoy helping with this project and many of my 4-H’ers asked to go out to the hive with us
Stillwell – Original set of bees swarmed and was replaced. Something got into the hive and chased the bees off. Looking to replace the bees at some point in 2023.
One phrase that has been reported by veteran beekeepers that now makes quite a bit of sense is, "There are bee keepers and bee havers. Bee havers replace there hives every couple of years. Bee keepers become sustainable."
*In May of 2022, OSU Food and Agricultural Products Center hosted a workshop attended by 11 Educators to learn the best management practices for harvesting honey and handling/storing the product.
*In March and April of 2023, OSU Extension put on a honey tasting program sponsored by the OkSARE PDP. Different honeys were included in this food handling training in order for the FCS participants to gain an appreciation of the taste influence derived from the different pollen collected by the bees during the honey making process. There were 23 and 25 (respectively) in attendance at these workshops.
*The Tribal Training Initiative is coordinated by Dr. Joshua Ringer out of Langston University. It works with three main tribal entities in the state of Oklahoma and encourages food production, food handling safety and value added products for off farm sales. These are held on various dates year round. They take place both in-person and on-line trainings.
*The Langston University Small Farms Field Day was held in July and visited a local producer in Bethany to tour their facility. Micah Anderson coordinated the event which was attended by 23 people.
*The Langston University 25th Annual Small Farms Conference on June 1st and 2nd, 2022, in Oklahoma City. The program was attended by 103 people and the topics covered included:
CALL TO ORDER
Mr. James Arati
WELCOME TO THE ANNUAL SMALL FARMERS CONFERENCE
Dr. Wesley Whittaker
Dean and Director of Land Grant Programs
School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Langston University
WELCOME
TMs. Meriruth Cohenour
Director of Market Development
Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry
OVERVIEW OF COOPERATIVE EXTENSION
Dr. Terry Gipson
Extension Associate Administrator
School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Langston University
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Dr. Dewayne Goldmon
Senior Advisor for Racial Equity to the Secretary of Agriculture
U. S. Department of Agriculture
EVENT SCHEDULE
Wednesday, June 1
9:00 am - Registration
9:30 am -10:30 am: Plenary Session
10:30am - 12:00pm: Breakout sessions
12:00 - 1:00pm: Lunch
1:00 pm - 4:00pm: Breakout sessions
4:00pm - 5:00pm Networking hour
Thursday, June 2
8:00am - 9:00am: Breakfast Buffet
9:00am - 9:45am: Breakout sessions
10:00am - 11:30am Plenary session
11:30am - 12:30pm: Lunch
12:30pm - 4:30pm: Farm tours
*The 2022 OSU Women in Agriculture and Small Business Conference was held in Oklahoma City on August 4th and 5th. Four educational tracks were developed, including agricultural production, alternative enterprises, beginning farmer and business and finance. The track featured a total of 24 informative breakout sessions on everything from record keeping, farm to food production and farmers markets to building healthier soil, preventing plant diseases and estate planning. Feedback from previous events indicated the participants found it beneficial to have time to network with others. “We built in a lot of time for networking and for the women to be social and build connections with other women in agriculture across the state,” McDaniel said. “We also had several inspirational speakers who will talk about the influence women have in the agricultural industry in communities in Oklahoma. Simply because you’re a producer from a small area doesn’t mean you can’t have a big impact in the agricultural world.” One of the OSU Extension farm management specialists, said the planning committee worked to create a learning opportunity that appealed to women involved in all aspects of the agricultural industry. “There was something for everyone, from beginning farmers/ranchers to established operators,” Bir said. “We covered traditional topics and enterprises, such as cattle, as well as diverse enterprises and new ways of interacting with customers.” Typically seen as a male-dominated industry, women are coming to the forefront in agriculture, and roles are changing. “Women have always been involved in agriculture, but now more women own their own operation or have official management roles in a larger family operation,” Bir said. “We hope this conference helped these women answer questions and spark new ideas.” Evaluations showed all participants agreed or strongly agreed the break out sessions were relevant to their work. The majority reported they learned at least 1 new skill to implement into their operation.
Encourage professionals to be trained in sustainable livestock practices such as rotational and multi-species
grazing and herd improvement
Programming promoted and encouraged by OkSARE to assist with this objective includes:
*Langston University Conference on Goats, 'Hair Sheep' and Sustainable Farming was held on Saturday, April 21, 2023 in Langston, Oklahoma. Included in this reporting period would also be the previous Langston University Goat and Hair Sheep Field Day.
*Two intensive workshops were hosted by Langston University to train and equip livestock professionals in artificial insemination for dairy and meat goat herd improvement. These workshops were held in June and August of 2022 at Langston University.
*In June of 2022, a travel scholarship was utilized by an Extension Educator to travel to attend the Texas Agrilife Extension Conference on composting manure. Knowledge gained through this attendance has been directly utilized in programming at the county level. Producers have been trained in the proper methods to safely compost manure on farm for use as fertilizer.
*Langston University held two workshops to train attendees in the best management practices of artificial insemination for both meat and dairy goats. Insemination kits were provided by OkSARE for 20 participants to use for training purposes. These kits contained everything needed for successful insemination (except semen straws which were provided by Langston University.)
*The 2022 Langston University Goat and Hair Sheep Field Day was held on Saturday, April 30th in Langston, Oklahoma. 189 people were in attendance.
*The 2023 Langston University Conference on Goats, 'Hair Sheep' & Sustainable Farming was attended by in excess of 100 people both days. The OkSARE PDP program was able to make over 200 copies of various educational publications available for attendees. The agenda for Saturday, April 21, 2023 was as follows...
LANGSTON UNIVERSITY
Sherman Lewis School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Langston University Conference on Goats, 'Hair Sheep' & Sustainable Farming
Day 2: "Producer to Consumer: Cost-effective Hair Sheep,
Dairy & Meat Goat Operations"
Saturday April 22, 2023
8:00 Registration
9:00 Moderator/ Ms. Dorothy Wilson/ Langston University
9:05 Welcome to Goat & Hair Sheep Field Day/ Dr. Wesley Whittaker, Dean/ Langston University
9:15 Overview of Research at SLSAAS/ Dr. Zaisen Wang/ Langston University
9:25 Mitigating Lack of Access to Small Ruminant Processing in Virginia/ Dr. Dahlia O'Brien/
Virginia State University 10:10 Break
10:30 Internal Parasite control/ Dr. Barry Whitworth/ Oklahoma State University
11:15 The Master Goat and Sheep Certification Program/ Dr. Angela McKenzie-Jakes/ Florida A&M
University 12:00 Announcements and LUNCH/ Dr. Vernon Jones
Afternoon Workshop
Time: 1 :30To3 :00
Conference Room 334
USDA Programs: Climate Change Dr. Andres Ciblis
Conservation programs Mr. Nick Jones
Farm loans
Ms. Kimberly White Mr. Brian Cooper
Wildlife Services Mr. Scott Alls
Time: 3 :00 To 4 :30
Conference Room 334
USDA Programs: Climate Change Dr. Andres Ciblis
Conservation programs Mr. Nick Jones
Farm loans
Ms. Kimberly White Mr. Brian Cooper
Wildlife Services
Mr. Scott Alls
Time: 1 :30 To 3 :00
South Farm
Basic Herd Health and Management
Dr. Lionel Dawson
Oklahoma State University
Basic Goat Husbandry Dr. Roger Merkel Langston University
Time: 3 :00 To 4 :30
South Farm Basic Herd Health and Management
Dr. Lionel Dawson Oklahoma State University
Basic Goat Husbandry Dr. Roger Merkel Langston University
Time: 1 :30 To 3 :00
Room 331
Nutrition with LINC Dr. Ryszard Puchala Langston University
Dairy Herd Improvement Dr. Luana Mccaughey Langston University
Time: 3 :00 To 4 :30
Room 331
Cookery
Dr. Tiffany Williams Langston University
Budgets
Dr. Nirodha De Silva Langston University
Time: 2 :00 To 3 :00
Dairy Farm Arena
Fitting and Showing for Youth and Adults
Ms. Amanda Manley
Langston University
Time: 3 :30To4 :30
Dairy Farm Arena Fitting and Showing for Youth and Adults
Ms. Amanda Manley
Langston University
Time: 1 :30 To 4 :30
Dairy Farm Creamery
Cheesemaking: Crafting Soft Lactic and Semi Hard Goat
Dr. Carlos Alvarado
Langston University
Time: 4:30 To 5:30
Dairy Farm
Langston University's Goat Farm Tour/ Dr. Steve Hart/ Langston University
OkSARE will actively pursue a cooperative effort to include the Educators of the College of the Muscogee Nation
in any trainings offered through both Oklahoma State University and Langston University.
The OSU Extension Program extended an invitation to the Educators and Administrators of the College of the Muskogee Creek Nation (the 1994 institution in Oklahoma) and Langston University to participate in the 2023 Oklahoma Extension and Biennial Conference held in Stillwater, Oklahoma in January of 2023. The OkSARE PDP was pleased to sponsor these attendances. There were 6 Educators that attended from the CMN. There were 9 attendees from Langston University. This effort aided in the coordination of collaborations between the Educators of the three institutions by encouraging networking and targeted communication. It is expected that this will be an ongoing process.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
Face of SARE
This report is the result of a substantial collaborative effort between Langston University, Oklahoma State
University, the College of the Muscogee Nation, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Food and Forestry, the
Natural Resource Conservation Service, the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, and the Oklahoma Soil and Water
Conservation Society and a host of exemplary commodity groups and producers to include both tribal and non-tribal
communities. The strategic planning for these training efforts (especially statewide and/or regional training)
includes farmers, extension personnel from the state land grant institutions, as well as other agencies, NGOs and
American Indian tribes when appropriate. Langston University and OSU personnel also collaborate in the planning of
the sustainable agriculture program through meetings and consultations whereby the various training programs are
developed and evaluated as to their effectiveness in meeting the objectives set forth in this plan of work.