Last Friday, June 14, 2019, Extension Directors and Administrators from the 5 regions of the Cooperative Extension Section gathered in a Zoom Room to explore how Cooperative Extension, part of the Land-grant University System, is responding to a passionately controversial agriculture/environment topic - dicamba that is mostly impacting Agricultural communities in the south and central part of the nation. Mike Fitzner, NIFA's Director of Division of Plant Systems-Protection, and the ECOP EDA Team's north central executive director assigned to the National Integrated Pest Management Coordinating Committee, assisted ECOP Chair, Ed Jones, Virginia Tech to lead the discussion. The 54-minute recording is available for review at
https://youtu.be/0O3FEzpcTWk and the PowerPoint is available to view and download by
Clicking Here. Submit questions or concerns to
ecopblog@gmail.com.
Don't Miss Wave 2 Pre-award Request for Application Informational Calls -
National 4-H Council (Council), through a competitive grant opportunity from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), will be extending an invitation for all Land-Grant Universities (LGUs) and the Cooperative Extension System within the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories to apply for this Wave 2 pre-award RFA of the Well Connected Communities initiative. Council, in partnership with the groundbreaking health initiatives of Cooperative Extension and anticipated funding from RWJF, is helping to drive transformational change to create the conditions that will foster a Culture of Health in communities across America. Council invites Directors and Administrators and their Associates and Program Leaders to register for the following.
- Pre-award RFA Call #1 to be held on June 25, 2019, 2:00-3:00 PM ET. Participants will receive an overview of the initiative and a preview of what to expect in the Wave 2 pre-award RFA. Register Here
- Pre-award RFA Call #2 on July 31, 2019, 2:00-3:00 PM ET. This will be a more in-depth webinar on the pre-award RFA for Wave 2. Participants will have an opportunity to ask any questions about the RFA and the submission process. Register Here
Extension’s Response to Everchanging Broadband Landscape - This year has seen significant broadband federal and state legislation as well as Extension education program activity. Numerous groups work to increase broadband awareness, access, and use. The
National Digital Education Extension Team (NDEET) includes land-grant university leaders following these efforts and working on research, training, projects, and partnerships to assist with broadband challenges and opportunities. Members are involved in many broadband organizations such as
School Healthcare Library Broadband Coalition (SHLB),
National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA),
NTIA USABroadband State Broadband Leaders Network (SBLN), and the
National Collaborative for Digital Equity’s (NCDE). Topics addressed by NDEET and these other groups include the
Homework Gap, the
Educational Broadband Service (EBS) program (broadband spectrum for education use), and federal broadband funding resources. For more information about NDEET, contact
Rachel Welborn.
Extension Farm Management’s Future - There is growing concern about the future of farm management extension education and if there a workforce to draw from for agents and specialists. A recent article on this topic was recently published in Choices, a publication produced by the American Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, written by Extension Directors John Lawrence (Iowa State University), Gregg Hadley (Kansas State University) and Jason Henderson (Purdue University). In this article these Directors, with extensive farm management experience, address the common issues of concern in the farm management extension community. See
http://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-articles/the-future-of-farm-management-extension/the-future-for-extension-farm-management-economists-the-directors-cut for the article.
USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) Program Stakeholder Webinar is Tomorrow - Directors and Administrators, dairy producers and Extension colleagues who work with these producers should know that FSA is conducting a webinar tomorrow June 17, 2019,1:30 P.M. ET to share the basic tools and resources for producers of the new FSA Dairy Margin Coverage DMC Program. Participants will have the opportunity to submit questions throughout the webinar in the Chat box. Cooperative Extension has been instrumental in developing and supporting the decision tool features used prominently in FSA's outreach. Join the meeting by registering here:
Registration Link. Direct question to
fsaoutreach@wdc.usda.gov.
