Tactical Agriculture (TAg) Train the Trainer Workshop

Tactical Agriculture (TAg) Train the Trainer Workshop

Summary

This training program will teach extension educators in the Northeast to use a proven educational design called Tactical Agriculture (TAg). While most extension educators conduct in-field workshops to disseminate current information and strategies relative to integrated crop management (ICM) and integrated pest management (IPM) to producers, most educators do not design programs in such a way as to maximize advantages of sound educational design for adult learners. The TAg program is grounded in educational research and design. The TAg program specifically is an experiential, hands-on season-long training program for small groups of field crop producers in local areas. The TAg program has been used successfully in New York State to teach producers to better manage field crops, protect the environment, reduce health risks, and enhance their own long-term viability by implementing specific targeted IPM and ICM practices. Producers are actively integrated into the growing-season-long educational program, which focuses on the collection of data from their fields in conjunction with meetings to discuss critical pest and crop management issues that arise during the growing season. The program has had remarkable success in encouraging participants to adopt IPM and ICM strategies. Impacts of the program are measured by pre- and post-testing of subject matter and an exit survey to determine the percentage of adoption of IPM and ICM practices taught to producers. We held a 2 day workshop on design, teaching, and evaluating an effective TAg program February 1-2, 2007. The workshop was very well received with 8 of the 12 participants conducting or developing new TAg programs in the Northeast. Because we wanted to train 20 Extension Educators and professional agriculture educators we plan to have a second workshop in late-January 2008.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Forty educators will be identified as potential beneficiaries of a workshop designed to train educators to use an innovative IPM educational program. Of these 40 targeted educators, 20 will participate in the workshop. From this group, 10 extension educators will successfully design and administer at least one TAg program during the year after the completion of the training workshop. As a result, 40 to 80 producers will be reached with the TAg program during the year following the training workshop.

We will present a program to train Extension Educators and other professional agriculture educators in the Northeast US to design and implement Tactical Agriculture, or TAg, programs in their county, region or state. This project involves identifying educators who seek innovative educational opportunities for IPM programming. Recruitment of these individuals will begin with communications with state IPM coordinators across the Northeast. Experts in adult agricultural education will be identified as instructors, and they will work directly with members of NYS IPM who use the innovative TAg program to design a curriculum for training educators to use a TAg program. Workshop participants who implement a TAg program will report back to the workshop trainers to indicate the usefulness of the program in their setting, improvements needed, and behavior changes that take place with targeted producers.

Accomplishments/Milestones

We organized a workshop that targeted extension educators and other selected agriculture educators in the northeastern US to train them in the use of the Tactical Agriculture, or TAg, educational method. The workshop was held on February 1 and 2 at the Desmond Inn in Albany, NY. Twelve Extension Educators and other professional agricultural educators attended the workshop. The workshop was very well received by the participants as the post-workshop survey results show. During the 2007 growing season, we worked with eight participants as they conducted local TAg programs or as they laid the groundwork for a future TAg program. We plan to reapeat the workshop again in February 2008.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Twelve educators attended the initial training. Eight of attending were from Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), 1 from the NYS IPM program, 1 from NE SARE, 1 from Department of Agriculture in Maine and 2 were from New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, Tuffs University. Results of a post-workshop evaluation survey on the effectiveness of the instruction. Results are shown as follows:

1. Survey Questions: Usefulness of aspects of TAg Train the Trainer

-Overall, the workshop was: 5=Very Useful, 1=Not Useful: The average was 4.6
-Talks Presented were: 5=Very Useful, 1=Not Useful: The average was 4.5
-Educational Materials were: 5=Very Useful, 1=Not Useful: The average was 4.7
-How involved did you feel during this workshop: Just Right=5, 1=Not Enough, The average was 4.75
-The workshop activities were designed: 5=Very well, 1=Poorly, The average was 4.0

Overwhelmingly, participants found this workshop useful to their work as depicted in survey questions 1. The prepared talks and educational materials and handouts were also useful to the participants. The professional educators that attended the workshop indicated that the hands-on activities were useful.

2. Survey Question: Do you plan on developing future teaching modules
Fifty percent of those responding indicated “yes”, 33% “maybe” and 17% responded “no”.

A teaching module is much like a pre-made educational curriculum for anyone who wants or needs to teach a subject. Almost ¾ of the participants in the workshop indicated that they would or might prepare teaching modules on different agricultural subjects that could be shared between educators.

(“I’ll use many of the tools re: adult education/ technology transfer, impacts and evaluation”, participant quote.)

3. Survey Question: Do you plan to develop a TAg program of your own in 2007 or later. Ninety percent of those responding indicated “yes” and only 9% “no”.

An overwhelming percentage of participants indicated that they would develop a TAg type educational program for the summer of 2007 as shown in survey question 3.

4. Survey question: Did the workshop meet expectations and needs
Ninety percent of those responding indicated “yes”, 10% “somewhat” and 0% no.

5. Survey Question: Would you recommend this workshop to your colleagues?
Ninety five percent of those responding indicated “yes” and only 5% “no”.

In survey question 4 workshop participants indicated the workshop did meet their expectations and in survey question 5 they state that they would recommend the training to other colleagues.

Copies of presentations, including activities and other resources were presented to participants in a workbook design to help introduce and guide them through the key steps in the process of developing a locally adapted TAg type program.

(“The small group size was an advantage for the activities”, participant quote.)

Workshop “graduates” have been quite successful in conducting or developing TAg programs for their clientele. The following table indicates what TAg and TAg like program were developed:

Table 1: Local 2007 TAg efforts by Workshop Participants.

-CCE*-Madison Co, ran 1 alfalfa-field corn TAg team and had 5 growers
-CCE-Oneida Co., ran 1 soybean TAg ream and had 4 growers
-CCE-Washington Co., developed a new bio-fuels TAg program and had 8 growers
-CCE-Cayuga Co., ran 1 soybean TAg Team and had 6 growers
-CCE-Northeast Dairy and Field Crops Team, ran 2 Soybean TAg teams and had 10 growers
-CCE-Southeast Dairy and Field Crops Team, developed a set of TAg like Soybean meetings
-Cornell/NYS IPM, developed a Greenhouse Biological Control Train the Trainer Program, and had 25 participants
-Maine Department of Agriculture, developing a Greenhouse IPM TAg program and is in progress.

*CCE – Cornell Cooperative Extension, NY

Since the information presented in the workshop was based on sound adult educational theory included discussion and examples of practical applications of these methods, participants were better able to apply knowledge gained to developing a TAg-like experiential learning experience for their adult audience. Much of the workshop information had relevance for direct application to help extension educators better meet local farmers’ needs and plan effective adult agricultural education programs.

(“The discussion on evaluation is something I know I’ll draw upon in my work-it was presented in a very accessible way and addressed many of the challenges of evaluation”, participant quote)

Our workshop attendance (12 educators) fell short of our initial participation target was 20 educators. As a result, we plan to offer a second workshop to help us reach our target goal in January 2008.

Collaborators: