Oregon PDP Program

Project Overview

WSP19-024
Project Type: PDP State Program
Funds awarded in 2019: $28,636.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2022
Host Institution Award ID: W243-20-W7506
Grant Recipient: OSU Extension
Region: Western
State: Oregon
State Coordinator:
Maud Powell
Email
OSU Extension

Commodities

Not commodity specific

Practices

  • Crop Production: conservation tillage, drought tolerance
  • Education and Training: decision support system, extension, farmer to farmer
  • Natural Resources/Environment: carbon sequestration

    Abstract:

    Our state stakeholder advisory committee will meet in May and discuss priority SA topics in Oregon. Based on the discussion, we will choose an SA topic to focus on for 2020 that can be applied throughout the state. Because Eastern and Western Oregon have very different climates and Oregon also has highly diverse farms, ranches and cropping systems, we will attempt to decide on a topic that is relevant to farmers and ranchers in all parts of the state. Here we describe our process. In future years we plan to meet with our AC to identify priority topics and work plans before April so that we can include more details in our annual application. 

    2020 is the first year we are switching from a model of disbursing SARE PDP funds for mini-grants to more in-depth work on one priority topic in sustainable agriculture and delivering education on that topic in different regions of the state. By employing this new model, we hope to increase our responsiveness to high priority topics that are currently relevant to agricultural professional, farmers and ranchers. Additionally, by deploying education on a certain topic in four different regions of the state, we hope to encourage collaboration in different regions of the state in an effort to provide the highest-quality programming.

    Project objectives:

    Objectives of this project include:

    • Work with the Advisory Committee to identify statewide priority topic in sustainable agriculture
    • Develop a strategy for delivering educational programming to address topic
    • Increase knowledge, skills and technical capacity of agricultural professionals on this topic
    • Increase knowledge, skills and technical capacity of farmers and/or ranchers on this topic
    • Assess success of educational programming and determine whether or not to address same topic 2021

    Timeline:

    May 2019: SARE PDP Advisory Committee meets to choose topic for 2020.

    October 2019: SARE PDP Advisory Committee meets to discuss strategy for addressing education on chosen topic.

    January-October 2020: Workshops, classes, conference, and farm tours in four regions of Oregon.

    Winter 2020: SARE PDP Advisory Committee meets to choose topic for 2021.

    November-December 2020: Evaluate Program

    Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.