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 and the
restructured workgroup/advisory for TN SARE. 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-coordinators 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.
- Gather input from the restructured Workgroup/Advisory Committee to assist in determining program direction and outreach methods.
- Continue to work directly with Tennessee State University and their SARE staff to present a unified effort regarding sustainable agriculture educational programming in Tennessee.