University of Tennessee Southern SARE Model State Program - Program Assistant

Commodities

Practices

The University of Tennessee SARE program looks to continue the sustainable agriculture training to Extension agents, specialists and other agriculture professionals. In meeting training needs we will look to gather input from regional agriculture program leaders, Extension agents, program partners, producers, past participants of our programs and input from the state SARE Advisory Committee, as well as observations made by the state co-coordinators of the project. The program assistant will continue to focus upon promoting/awareness of the SARE program and developing programs impacting sustainable agriculture, that will assist trainers in implementing programming with producers and landowners. The state co-coordinator will continue to work with and support the program assistant to implement programs promoting and having an impact on sustainable agriculture. We will also work with Tennessee State University's SARE program to coordinate efforts in training agriculture professionals in the area of sustainable agriculture. All training opportunities offered will continue to be in line with the mission of SARE to include:
Farm Profitability
Conservation of water, air and land resources
Recognizing the quality of life that relies upon research and education
Farm Production
Programs and trainings conducted on sustainable agriculture will be evaluated and provide participants the opportunity to give any feedback once the program is completed. Trainees will be encouraged to share their program experiences with co-workers with presentations at local meetings, developing a publication or video highlighting the details of the program. All program impacts will be provided in the annual SARE reporting methods.

Our audience for the SARE program in Tennessee is Extension Agents and Specialists along with other agriculture professionals (USDA Personnel, others) who have the opportunity to "teach" producers about sustainable agriculture methods.  Our training method will be consistent will Southern SARE as we continue to use the "Train-the-Trainer" process.  This works well for our audience and funding within our SARE program for trainings will be conducted this way.  We plan to reach up to 150 members of our audience through our training programs.  Those trained will make use of their knowledge gained by providing sustainable agriculture methods to farmers and producers they work with.  Some of the overall goals we would like to accomplish in our trainings will be profitability on the farm, making efficient use of all available resources on the farm (land, water and air), increase knowledge level of trainees on sustainable agriculture practices, and provide educational resources for trainees.