Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
- Animal Production: animal protection and health, feed/forage, feed management, grazing management, manure management, meat processing, meat processing facilities, meat product quality/safety, preventive practices, processing regulations, range improvement, rangeland/pasture management, watering systems
- Crop Production: application rate management, beekeeping, conservation tillage, cover crops, crop improvement and selection, cropping systems, crop rotation, drainage systems, fertigation, fertilizers, foliar feeding, food processing, food processing facilities/community kitchens, food product quality/safety, grafting, greenhouses, high tunnels or hoop houses, irrigation, low tunnels, multiple cropping, no-till, nurseries, nutrient cycling, nutrient management, organic fertilizers, pollination, pollinator habitat, pollinator health, postharvest treatment, row covers (for season extension), season extension, seed saving, tissue analysis, varieties and cultivars, water management, water storage, winter storage
- Education and Training: decision support system, demonstration, display, extension, farmer to farmer, networking, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research, technical assistance, workshop, youth education
- Energy: bioenergy and biofuels, biofuel feedstocks, energy conservation/efficiency, renewable energy, solar energy
- Farm Business Management: agricultural finance, agritourism, budgets/cost and returns, business planning, community-supported agriculture, cooperatives, e-commerce, farm-to-institution, farm-to-restaurant, farmers' markets/farm stands, farm succession, financial management, labor/employment, land access, marketing management, new enterprise development, risk management, value added, whole farm planning
- Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, carbon sequestration, habitat enhancement, riverbank protection, soil stabilization, wildlife
- Pest Management: biofumigation, biological control, botanical pesticides, chemical control, competition, cultivation, cultural control, disease vectors, economic threshold, eradication, field monitoring/scouting, flame, integrated pest management, mulches - general, mulching - plastic, physical control, prevention, row covers (for pests), sanitation, trap crops, traps, weather monitoring
- Production Systems: dryland farming, holistic management, hydroponics, integrated crop and livestock systems, organic agriculture
- Soil Management: composting, green manures, nutrient mineralization, organic matter, soil analysis, soil chemistry, soil microbiology, soil physics, soil quality/health
- Sustainable Communities: community development, employment opportunities, food hubs, local and regional food systems, new business opportunities, partnerships, public participation, quality of life, social networks, sustainability measures, urban agriculture
Proposal abstract:
Alaska farms are diverse and spread widely across the state. Alaska is one-fifth the size of the contiguous United States (365 million acres) and is home to roughly 800 farm operations. Fifteen million acres of soil have been designated as suitable for farming, but only about one million acres are currently farmed. While not all acreages are yet being utilized for farming, there is a great potential for agriculture growth within the state, and residents are eager for knowledge. Currently, there are only seven cooperative extension service agents with full or partial agriculture/horticulture appointments to reach all of the communities across the state. In order to be effective, extension agents rely on partnership, collaboration, and cooperation with other agencies and agricultural groups to disperse information across the state.
Our goal is to provide an educational conference and workshops/webinars/newsletter to support agricultural professionals and farmers within the state as well as have our WSARE state coordinator attend the annual WSARE summer meetings. The primary deliverable for this project includes: 1) hosting the Annual Alaska Sustainable Agriculture Conference, 2) providing workshops focused on sustainable agriculture, 3) providing webinars/newsletter focused on sustainable agriculture, and 4) hosting and providing access online to conference/workshop presentations and recorded webinars.
Project objectives from proposal:
Desired objectives of the Alaska SARE PDP include: 1) Increase the knowledge of agricultural professionals about sustainable agriculture practices and achievable goals that they can adapt and implement in Alaska, 2) Increase the emphasis on sustainable agriculture practices that agricultural professionals incorporate into educational programs and publications, 3) Facilitate the transmission of knowledge of sustainable agriculture principles from agricultural professionals to agricultural producers, and 4) Promote the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices by agricultural producers and assist them in developing the skills necessary to make these practices successful. These objectives will be achieved through the offering of the Annual Alaska Sustainable Agriculture Conference and Workshops to be provided each year during the month of November. Newsletters and webinars will be offered throughout the span of the award period. For further description, please see the detailed timeline.