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.