Fall 2003

Kerr Center to Manage USDA Program

The Kerr Center recently received a three- year grant to manage the Professional Development (PDP) Program for the USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, southern region.

Jim Horne, Kerr Center president and CEO, has been named regional coordinator. David Redhage is project associate. Other Kerr Center staff will participate in various aspects of the program.

“It was an honor to be chosen through a competitive process to manage the Professional Development Program of the Southern Region SARE program,” says Horne. “This is the first time in the history of SARE that a non-profit has been chosen to lead a program of this scope.

“We will be taking this responsibility seriously and will use a collaborative approach to see that all stakeholders are well served. The southern region SARE program is highly respected for its innovative programs and we are prepared to continue this tradition.”

The Professional Development program is a “train-the-trainer program” which provides sustainable agriculture education and outreach strategies for Cooperative Extension Service personnel, Natural Resources Conservation Service staff and others who work directly with farmers and ranchers.

SARE is a national competitive grants program funded by USDA and EPA to promote research and education about sustainable agriculture. Established in 1988, SARE has funded some 2,500 projects that examine how to improve agricultural profitability, protect natural resources and foster more viable rural communities. Information from
the projects is disseminated through various publications and online at sare.org.

SARE is part of the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. Due to its popularity and record of meaningful research and outreach, SARE’s funding has increased from about $11 million at its inception to about $18.5 million per year now.

The program almost didn’t happen, says Horne. Horne testified before Congress in 1985 about the need for a program to fund research into alternative agriculture. His testimony and that of others led to the establishment of SARE, known for its innovation, local leadership, low overhead, and quality of projects, which are chosen only after rigorous review.
Southern SARE administers six separate grant programs: Research and Education, Producer, Graduate Student, Professional Development, On Farm Research, and Sustainable Community Innovation. Each has its own priorities and audiences. Calls for proposals are issued each year to start the competitive process.

Training activities funded by the Professional Development program include seminars, workshops, farm tours, or on-farm demonstrations. Grantees also may develop, market and distribute training materials such as handbooks or videos. Activities may take place in a single state, multiple states or throughout the entire southern region. Grants generally range from about $20,000 to $120,000.

One example of a previous professional development program grant is the “Statewide Journey” project run by the Center for Profitable Agriculture in Tennessee. It provided a great launching pad for needed and useful training in value-added and sustainable agriculture for Extension agents, agriculture leaders and communities across Tennessee. The training project combined documented success stories from actual enterprises with on-site tours, seminar-style sessions, web-based resources and mass media.

A University of Kentucky project is another example of a successful PDP grant. The primary objective of the project was to equip Extension agents and other ag professionals to assist farmers interested in adding value to farm products through processing.

Workshops were held to show the various levels of small scale processing facilities, which ranged from a single-user on-farm permitted kitchen to a shared-user, commercial incubator kitchen. Examples of existing facilities and their operators were identified, and some operators helped design training. Agents and farmers learned from the experiences of operators in establishing and operating the facilities.

Training in farm and forest land preservation was held in three cities across the South this past summer through a PDP grant awarded to the Kerr Center (see story on page 6). It is a good example of a region-wide project.
The next call for proposals for the professional development program will go out in March 2004 and the pre-proposals will be due in May (other grant programs have different time frames).

For more information about all the Southern SARE grant programs, visit www.griffin.peachnet.edu/sare/pdppage.html or call 770-412-4787. For more information on the 2004 PDP grants call David Redhage at the Kerr Center at 918-647-9123 or email dredhage@kerrcenter.com.

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