- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
California ag faces a decade of challenges
(Farm Press) Tim Hearden, Jan. 31
…“We're getting close to a point where field work in agriculture is similar to or higher than the wages in other sectors,” said Dan Sumner, director of the University of California's Agricultural Issues Center in Davis. “But the problem is the hours of work.”
Much of agricultural work is seasonal, making the 40-hour work week impractical in many circumstances, Sumner and others say.
…When they mechanize, growers encounter more regulations. For instance, Steve Fennemore, a UC plant sciences specialist in Salinas, has been helping a company develop an autonomous weeder...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Santa Barbara County 4-H program is raising awareness about the county board of supervisors' plans to cut funding for UC Cooperative Extension, according to reports that appear on the KSBY Channel 6 website and in the Santa Barbara Independent.
According to the Independent article, written by Mary Thieleke Jackson, director of the Santa Barbara County 4-H Management Board, a draft budget released Friday, May 10, does not include a county contribution to UC Cooperative Extension. Budget hearings are expected to take place the week of June...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
California Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed $97.6 billion general fund budget for fiscal 2013-14 boosts spending on education, implements health care reform and eliminates what was a $25 billion state deficit when the governor took office, reported Tim Hearden in Capital Press.
The governor's proposal increases funding for both public schools and higher education, adding $250 million for the University of California and California State University systems. The increases come after voters approved higher income and sales taxes in Proposition 30 in November, bringing relief to UC Cooperative Extension officials who feared further cuts if the...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Research through university campuses, UC Cooperative Extension, and USDA Agricultural Research Service not only improves productivity and makes California growers more competitive in the international market, it also helps producers use resources more efficiently and minimize environmental and other societal impacts, wrote Bob Curtis and Gabriele Ludwig of the Almond Board of California in an op-ed published by Western Farm Press.
The article noted that grants have been helpful in recent years to conduct research, but they do not address the loss of "research capacity," a phrase the authors use to describe cuts to...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors agreed to a 2 percent increase over the UC Cooperative Extension budget request for the 2012-13 fiscal year, according to an article in The Business Journal.
The 2 percent increase follows several years of budget cuts. Cooperative Extension expenses for the 2012-13 year are estimated at $433,572. The county’s contribution is $294,796.
“Our budget probably won’t change,” said Stephen Vasquez, UCCE Cooperative Extension advisor and co-director. But it will be tight, he said.
In fact, UCCE in Fresno...
