SARE Professional Development Program Provides Training and Education for Organic Production Systems

As more and more growers convert to organic production systems, NRCS has worked to assist them by offering “transition to organic” funding in more than 11 states. The SARE Professional Development Program (PDP)  program has followed suit by funding educational programs to keep NRCS, Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, and other agricultural professionals up to speed on the latest developments in organic production systems.

SARE PDP proposals are currently being accepted in three of four SARE regions.

Georgia Organics, a nonprofit organization based in Decatur, established a series of professional development opportunities that reached some 250 agricultural professionals over three years. With the help of a SARE PDP grant, the organization held seven workshops and a number of farm tours, all planned with help from farmers, ensuring that participants had a healthy dose of in-the-field realism.

By presenting at professional conferences, some of which headlined them as keynote speakers, Georgia Organics reached an additional 500 professionals, including Extension educators, NRCS staff, and environmental health professionals. The events brought more researchers from land-grant universities and extension specialists to bear on the needs of Georgia’s organic growers, said Mary Ann Woodie, Georgia Organics’ conference coordinator. “It’s all about bringing people together,” Woodie said.

In the Northeast, a SARE PDP grant provided funding for four, three-day meetings designed to strengthen educators’ capacity to serve organic farmers. As a result of that intensive training, a number of agencies are now better able to support new initiatives, such as the National Organic Program (NOP) or the NRCS “transition to organic” practice standard.

More than 22 agriculture service professionals, including four from NRCS, completed the course. The meetings combined lectures with on-farm studies, and continuous inquiry and networking via electronic discussion and conference calls. All of the coursework and lectures are available through the Northeast Organic Network Website.

“The workshops did exactly what we wanted,” said Vern Grubinger, extension professor at the University of Vermont, and co-project leader of the Northeast In-Depth Organic Training for Agricultural Professionals.  “We had good discussions and a lot of cross fertilization among participants.”

Most significantly, added Grubinger, the workshops provided a great opportunity to build strong networks and to encourage the flow of information in both directions. “When you bring all these smart and interesting people together, there’s tremendous energy,” he said. “The participants had over 100 years of collective experience in the field, and we all learned a lot from each other.”

The SARE PDP program provides sustainable agriculture education and outreach strategies for Cooperative Extension System and Natural Resources Conservation Service staff and other agricultural educators who work directly with farmers and ranchers.

SARE PDP proposals are currently being accepted in three out of four of the SARE regions. For more information, go to the SARE grants website.  

About SARE
Since 1988, SARE has helped advance farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities through a nationwide grants program.  The program, administered by  CSREES and USDA, funds projects and conducts outreach designed to improve agricultural systems and natural resources.

NRCS field office professionals frequently collaborate on SARE-funded projects and are valuable partners to the SARE program. NRCS staff serve on SARE’s national Operations Committee, on regional Administrative Councils, on State committees and are actively engaged as technical advisers and collaborators on SARE-funded research grants around the U.S.

 For more information, visit the SARE website or for more information about the regional SARE programs, click on the region area of the map below.

Your contact is Diana Friedman, SARE research associate, at 301-504-6422.