| Greensboro, NC: From a crime victims' assistance
program in Durham County to shiitake mushrooms in Martin County, the 1998
North Carolina A&T State University School of Agriculture Dean's Small
Farms and Communities Tour showcased Cooperative Extension efforts in eight
northeastern North Carolina counties.
Nearly 100 participants, including Extension administration and specialists,
participated in the two-day tour.
The tour's first stop was the Weaver Street Community Center in Durham,
where Durham County 4-H Extension agent James Miller showcased a
multi agency effort (involving Cooperative Extension, the Governor's Crime
Commission, and the Durham County Department of Housing and Urban Development)
to assist crime victims living in low-income communities, and A&T Extension's
leadership development program, Community Voices.
From Durham, the tour traveled to the Joseph and Lucy Allen Farm in Vance
County, where Vance County agriculture and natural resources technician
Wayne Rowland explained that it doesn't take a lot of acreage for a diversified
production mix. Always willing to experiment with new alternative crops,
the Allens are conducting a trial for a new variety of pumpkin, and have
been a major presence at the Vance County Farmer's Market.
Next, the group learned about Extension's involvement in community improvement
efforts, while attending a luncheon at the Peachtree Community Center in
Nash County, approximately three miles from Spring Hope. In their
community of between 75 and 100 families, Peachtree residents have been
working to develop recreational facilities and other community improvements
for more than 20 years.
Not long after Nash County CRD Extension agent John Gibson introduced A&T
Extension's Community Voices and other leadership development programs
to the residents of Peachtree, the Peachtree Community Development Organization
was chartered as a nonprofit organization by the State of North Carolina.
The Peachtree Community Development Organization has since gone on to secure
a $25,000 grant from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human
Services for establishing a community center.
1997 Small Farmers of the Year Larry and Barbara Jean Pierce of Halifax
County then led the tour around their 39-acre farm, about three miles
south of Roanoke Rapids. With Halifax County Cooperative Extension agricultural
agent Haywood Harrell's help and careful planning, the Pierces have been
able to increase their farm profits impressively by reducing labor costs
and increasing production.
The future of agriculture was seen in the form of 15-year-old Caleb Parker's
Newland Nurseries, the tour's first stop in Pasquotank County. Parker,
owner of the rural business, credits his high school agricultural studies,
participation in FFA, and a youth loan from the Farm Service Agency for
his success in farming.
Youth opportunities were also the focus of the tour's second Pasquotank
County stop, as the group was treated to a briefing on "Building Tomorrow's
Leaders," during a dinner at the Pasquotank County Extension Center
in Elizabeth City. In this multi-county effort, Extension personnel in
Pasquotank, Perquimans and Camden counties are working together to coordinate
a program which teaches teenage girls about career opportunities and success
through proper business etiquette and standard job application processes.
During the dinner, participants in Building Tomorrow's Leaders used the
presentation skills learned through the program to share how they feel
the program has helped them.
Farming activities in Bertie and Hertford counties, and a
welfare reform program were on the docket for the tour's first stop of
the second day at the Bertie County Extension Center in Windsor.
Sharing their farming experiences with the group were William and Jessie
Rae Moore, and William Ward. The Moores, farmers since 1978, were runners-up
for the 1998 G. L. Dudley Small Farmer of the Year Award. Though peanuts
and soybeans are the current mainstays on their 33-acre farm, the Moores
are planning to move into vegetable production.
Ward, a lifelong farmer, owns approximately 280 acres and rents another
230 acres. With farm land in both Hertford and Bertie counties, his major
crops are tobacco, cotton, peanuts and soybeans.
Next, Bertie County 4-H Extension agent Bettina Odom presented "Empowering
to Succeed in the Workplace," a welfare-to-work program she coordinates
in Bertie County. In addition to Odom's presentation, program participants
shared their experiences with the program which gives participants 84 hours
of training, covering such topics as financial management, parenting skills
and goal setting.
In Martin County, the tour visited the Bennie Bunting Farm. Bunting,
a one-time swine producer who was forced to look for other enterprises
when low prices for swine made the profit margins risky, now grows shiitake
mushrooms in former swine buildings. A grant through North Carolina A&T's
Ways to Grow program helped Bunting get his shiitake operation in full
gear, and he now grows all of his mushrooms in sawdust blocks and wholesales
them up and down the East Coast through commercial brokers.
The Bunting farm also recently added aquaculture to its production mix.
Bunting showed the tour how he converted the rings of old grain bins into
fish tanks.
At a luncheon at the West Martin School, in Martin County's Oak City, the
tour learned about a showcase Down-to-Earth program coordinated by Christine
Manning, a 4-H program assistant.
Down-to-Earth is an in-school educational program designed by a team of
Extension specialists from North Carolina A&T State University to teach
elementary school children the scientific method through gardening projects.
On the tour's final stop in Raleigh, Morris Dunn, a Wake County
agricultural Extension agent, explained how many farmers in his area are
capitalizing on their county's rapid urbanization.
Two of those farmers are Loyied and Barbara Norris, winners of 1998 G.
L. Dudley Small Farmer of the Year Award. The Norrises use a strong sense
of customer satisfaction and the Cary farmer's market to sell their wide
variety of produce.
To take advantage of the large number of horse enthusiasts in Wake County,
James Dunn is using his farm to offer boarding and training facilities.
Another Wake County farmer who has found a way to adapt to the new economic
realities facing agriculture in the area is Brian Richardson. Richardson
grows cucumbers on 60 acres, and, after discovering that he wasn't the
only cucumber grower in the area in need of grading facilities, he built
his own grading facilities.
Lastly, Wake County 4-H program assistant Nedra Davis provided an overview
of education efforts targeting parents of children ages 5 and under, in
several limited-resource neighborhoods in Raleigh, using "Smart Start"
funding.
Community Voices training modules developed by A&T specialists will
be used to help these parents learn how they can identify and influence
public policy decisions which will have a significant impact on the environment
in which their children spend their formative years.
According to Dr. Daniel Lyons, assistant administrator of regional and
county field operations for A&T's Cooperative Extension Program, the
tour was designed to showcase outstanding small-scale farming operations
and community vitality in North Carolina.
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For more information, please contact Dr. Daniel Lyons, NC A&T Cooperative
Extension Program, (336) 334-7024.
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