AgFS Connection-January 2025

Volume 1  | Issue 1  | January 2025

AgFS Connection: Highlights and Innovations in Maryland Agriculture

Darren Jarboe, UME, Assistant Director and Program Leader, Agriculture and Food Systems

Welcome to the AgFS Connection! This newsletter highlights the applied research and educational programs of the University of Maryland Agriculture and Food Systems Extension Program (AgFS). The AgFS winter educational programming season is winding down. The remaining programs are listed on the Extension Events Calendar. Growing season programming will start in early spring.

In October, the AgFS suddenly lost long-time Extension educator Stanton Gill. He led our Ornamental Horticulture Team and was a driving force in the industry regionally and nationally. We will miss his leadership and entrepreneurial drive to serve nursery, landscape, and greenhouse growers and service providers. Our thoughts are with his family.

As Delmarva deals with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) infections, the service provided by the AgFS Poultry Team and their collaborators to assist poultry growers in prevention of the disease through biosecurity education and management. Their efforts to serve Maryland’s largest agricultural sector are appreciated.

This past year AgFS established a new statewide Urban Agriculture Program. Maryland urban farmers identified additional applied research and educational programs that would assist them in developing successful farming operations. The Maryland General Assembly funded two new Extension positions, one focused on urban farm and agribusiness management and the other on urban agriculture production. To meet these needs, Drs. Xuan Wei and Qianwen Lu were hired into these respective positions and are working with our AgFS Extension educators to serve Maryland’s urban farmers.

The AgFS precision agriculture program formally started sixteen months ago when Dr. Hemendra Kumar joined us. He brings expertise in water management, sensor technologies, and other precision agriculture technologies. Dr. Bill Phillips joined the Agricultural Nutrient Management Program (ANMP) this month. In addition to his educational programming duties, he will explore the use of drone technology in gaining nutrient management planning efficiencies. Dr. Travis Ford, the new AgFS Extension educator in Caroline County, brings extensive experience in digital agriculture from the private sector. The expertise of these Extension educators will help prepare Maryland farmers and agribusinesses as digital agriculture usage continues to expand.

The ANMP joined the AgFS on September 30, 2024 and continues to provide nutrient management training and planning services for Maryland farmers. In its first year with the AgFS, the ANMP provided 1,132 farmers with nutrient management plans that covered 5,456 tracts with over 245,000 acres. Farmers can find their advisor in the Nutrient Management Directory to request assistance with their nutrient management plan.

The AgFS Extension educators offer Extension publications, newsletters, online resources, posters, and social media on a wide variety of topics on the Agriculture Resources website.

Please welcome the many new AgFS hires highlighted in the Faculty and Staff Spotlight section. These faculty and staff serve the agriculture and food systems sectors in your communities.

Best wishes for a prosperous 2025!
 

NOTICE TO BENEFICIARIES AND PROSPECTIVE BENEFICIARIES

Name of Organization: University of Maryland Extension Name of Program: Agriculture and Food Systems Contact Information for Program Staff: Darren Jarboe, Editor, Assistant Director and Program Leader, Agriculture and Food Systems Program, University of Maryland Extension, 1204 Symons Hall, 7998 Regents Drive, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, (301) 405-6935, jarboe@umd.edu.

Because this program is supported in whole or in part by financial assistance from the Federal Government, we are required to let you know that:

1. We may not discriminate against you on the basis of religion, a religious belief, a refusal to hold a religious belief, or a refusal to attend or participate in a religious practice;
2. We may not require you to attend or participate in any explicitly religious activities (including activities that involve overt religious content such as worship, religious instruction, or proselytization) that are offered by our organization, and any participation by you in such activities must be purely voluntary;
3. We must separate in time or location any privately funded explicitly religious activities (including activities that involve overt religious content such as worship, religious instruction, or proselytization) from activities supported with direct Federal financial assistance; and
4. You may report violations of these protections, including any denials of services or benefits by an organization, by contacting or filing a written complaint with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Center for Civil Rights Enforcement, Program Complaint Division by mail, fax, or e-mail at:
   
   Mail: United States Department of Agriculture Director, Center for     Civil Rights Enforcement 1400 Independence Avenue, SW     Washington, DC 20250-9410
   Fax: (202) 690-7442
   Email: program.intake@usda.gov 
    
5. If you would like to seek information about whether there are any other federally funded organizations that provide these kinds of services in your area, please contact Latoya Hicks at lhicks12@umd.edu.

This written notice must be provided to you before you enroll in the program or receive services from the program, unless the nature of the service provided, or exigent circumstances make it impracticable to provide such notice before we provide the actual service. In such an instance, this notice must be provided to you at the earliest available opportunity.

University programs, activities, and facilities are available to all without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, age, national origin, political affiliation, physical or mental disability, religion, protected veteran status, genetic information, personal appearance, or any other legally protected class.