2025 Southern Model State Program Assistant Grant- The University of Georgia

Commodities

Practices

The UGA SARE program is in the process of developing a new logic model and a 5-year plan to address upcoming needs for professional development opportunities with the addition our new UGA Coordinator. We will continue to provide travel support for Extension agents to attend conferences, workshops, and educational programming. The Program will work to address needs in urban food production and local food systems as well as provide more opportunities to support and expand the UGA Journeyman Farmer program, which is needed to support farmers throughout the State. The UGA Coordinator and SARE program assistant are housed in the Center for Urban Agriculture at UGA in an effort to further connect with urban audiences. We will support programming that seek to engage non-traditional audiences for outreach. The new logic model will be completed during the 2025-2026 project year.

The Georgia Model State Program developed a Logic Model to guide our training efforts. The Logic Model, updated in 2015, reflects needs of Georgia as directed by the SARE Advisory Committee. To reach our long-term goal of "Increased use of sustainable agriculture practices by producers at multiple scales supported by a knowledgeable network of agricultural professionals ensuring a high proportion of diverse, profitable, and environmentally-friendly farm operations", we identified the following six areas for training workshops: conservation tillage systems, organic production, grazing-based animal production systems, composting, direct marketing, and local food systems. We will conduct a comprehensive review and evaluation of the logic model during the upcoming year to present at the 2025 Advisory Council meeting.

Current Logic Model: Georgia SARE Logic Model

Our current training objectives are as follows:

1. Providing support for Extension professionals to attend both the Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference and SOWTH Conference. We will provide support for up to 6 total attendees (4 for SE Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference and 2 for SOWTH Conference).
2. Providing support for the Journeyman Farmer Program in Georgia. This program has been very successful and is the only program of its type in Georgia. We will be expanding this program in the 2025-2026 year to include training on composting and cut flower production.
3. Further developing our network of farmer-delivered programming. We are planning a 2025 Sustainable Urban Agriculture Field Day event and will include two growers as speakers. We feel that grower-led discussion can be highly impactful. An example is an upcoming program that is being
   planned for Spring 2025 which will provide training to growers and agents in the area of mushroom production and local food systems. We also have a Spring 2025 and 2026 training which will focus on precision agriculture, cover cropping, and integrated pest management.

Our current SARE program assistant is housed at the UGA Center for Urban Agriculture and we are seeing an increased demand of SARE-supported sustainable urban agriculture programming throughout the year.