Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
Proposal abstract:
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 look to gather input
from regional
agriculture program leaders, Extension agents, program partners,
producers, past
participants of our programs as well as observations made by the
state co-coordinators. The program
assistant will continue to focus upon promoting/awareness of the
SARE program and
developing programs impacting sustainable agriculture, and 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 educational programs
and provide leadership of the overall SARE program. 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 coworkers through presentations at
local meetings, developing a publication or a video highlighting
the details of the program. All program impacts will be provided
in the annual SARE report.
Project objectives from proposal:
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 learn and "teach" producers about sustainable agriculture methods. Our training will be consistent will Southern SARE as we continue to use the "Train-the-Trainer" process. Those trained will make use of their knowledge gained by providing sustainable agriculture methods to farmers and producers.
Our focus will be to:
- Train Extension Agents and others by providing professional improvement opportunities to learn more about sustainable agriculture. This will be accomplished by making use of current applicable conferences and creating and planning In-service training opportunities
- Promote the SARE program through Extension Agent Agriculture Planning Days and professional association meetings.
- Follow up with Extension Agents who have attended sustainable agriculture trainings to determine how they were able to use what they learned and gather impacts from their programming efforts.
- Develop other annual/quarterly reports for administrative staff highlighting educational opportunities in sustainable agriculture.
- Develop more creative ways to involve others to gain input to the future of SARE in Tennessee. This would involve a change in the current Advisory Committee Structure.
- Continue to work directly with Tennessee State University and their SARE staff to show a unified effort regarding sustainable agriculture educational programming in our state.