Progress report for YENC19-141
Project Information
American farmers' average age reported by United States Department of Agriculture is 57 years. Moreover, farming population all over the world is diminishing. Thus, it is a crucial moment for youth to realize the importance of agriculture and become involved in all aspects of the food system in a sustainable manner. Our proposed project of Sustainable AG Day will increase awareness among middle school students about sustainable agricultural practices through hands-on project activities. Future pioneers in the sustainable agricultural industry can be inspired through events like Sustainable AG Day, which in turn will help in increasing awareness in the communities.
- Educate middle school students about sustainable agricultural practices through hands-on project activity at an educational campus facility.
- Increase awareness among middle school students about sustainable farming practices, soil health, beneficial insects, benefits of native pollinators, specialty crop production, aquaponics, high tunnels, greenhouses, precision agriculture, and marketing of produce.
- Promote and excite middle school students about careers in sustainable agricultural industry in a sustainable manner.
- Disseminate materials in the form of pamphlets/brochures/power points/educational materials, and web links, to project participants to share with their families, thereby increasing awareness about sustainable agriculture practices in the communities.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
We at Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) have sat down with our agriculture and horticulture instructors/advisers to start the preliminary planning for our sustainable agriculture and education day. As stated in the project proposal we plan to have multiple sessions for the middle school students to attend led by agriculture leaders and producers involved in sustainable agriculture. We were unable to have the activity in September 2020 due to COVID19 restrictions and are now planning it for September 2021. However, due to unforeseen situation of sad demise of our Director of the Entreprenuer Center for Horticulture and moving on of our youth educator to a different position with Natural Resource Conservation Services in the beginning of this year, we were not able to conduct the workshop. We are understaffed and are having difficulty filling positions with appropriate candidates. We are very sorry, to inform you that under present circumstances we will not be able finish the proposed workshop before the project end date. We have not spent any funding for this project because all of the requested budget was related to conducting workshop and since we will not be able to conduct the workshop we are returning the full funding provided to us for the proposed project.