- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The vital link that UC Cooperative Extension provides between public universities and communities is nowhere more true than in viticulture, reported Paul Franson in Wines and Vines. Cooperative Extension advisors have helped winegrape growers improve cultural practices and overcome a host of pests, diseases and water and climatic issues by applying university research to solve problems.
The lengthy article was written in honor of UC Cooperative Extension's 100th anniversary. The organization was formed on May 8, 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Smith-Lever Act into law.
For the story, Franson...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
The wave of UCCE advisors and specialists retiring at the end of June has surfaced concern among people in the agricultural industry.
In the August edition of Wines & Vines, Cliff Ohmart writes about “The Future of Farm Extension.” Ohmart writes: “Given what appears to be a decline in the number of advisors in the future, I am very concerned about their ability to continue being effective in this role. This is no criticism of the hard-working and talented people currently in viticulture advisor positions—or future advisors—but an observation about the workload they currently have...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
To feed the growing world population, farmers will have to produce more food in the next 40 years than they have in the last 10,000, according to an op-ed piece published in the Modesto Bee and written by Barbara Allen-Diaz, vice president of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Don Bransford, chair of the UC President's Advisory Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources and a partner in Bransford Farms in Colusa.
The article was written to bring attention to the fact that, despite the need to produce so much food in coming years, funds for agricultural research are being...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Barbara Allen-Diaz, vice president for UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, explained in a radio interview posted by the Ag Net West radio network how UC ANR is filling gaps created by the retirement of UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists.
"We are an aging population," Allen-Diaz said. "We fully recognize that we need to bring new, young, highly trained, highly skilled individuals into Cooperative Extension."
She said administrators are making decisions by studying demographic data, who is retiring and where UCCE research and outreach are needed.
"We're looking at prioritizing rolling...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A wave of retirements among the ranks of UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists in recent years and in the near future is carrying away decades of institutional and technical knowledge, reported Tim Hearden in Capital Press.
"Obviously we are losing a huge amount of knowledge and experience in a very short time," Barbara Allen-Diaz, the UC's vice president for agriculture and natural resources, told the Capital Press in an email. "We are trying as rapidly as possible to ensure continuity of programs and capacity to respond to existing, new and emerging needs in the...