The quality of the Department’s extension program is receiving widespread recognition. The extension faculty received major awards in the last few years. John McKissick received the 2005 UGA Walter B. Hill Award for Distinguished Achievement in Public Service and Outreach from the University and the 2004 Outstanding Faculty Award from the CAES Alumni Association. Dr. McKissick oversees the formation and implementation of economic development and marketing programs for Georgia’s farmers and agribusinesses. Don Shurley received the outstanding extension faculty awards in the College in 2003 (D.W. Brooks Award) and 2005 (Gamma Sigma Delta Award). Nathan Smith recently was presented two national awards. He received the 2003 Administrator's Award from the USDA, Farm Service Agency. In addition, Dr. Smith was presented the Outstanding Public Issues Education Program Award from the Farm Foundation and the National Public Policy Education Committee. Curt Lacy is serving as Chair of the National Livestock Market Information Center Technical Advisory Committee. He was recently elected to the leadership rotation to the Southern Extension Farm Management Committee.

The Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development (CAED) is an important arm of Agricultural and Applied Economics programs at the University of Georgia. The Center is a unit of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, combining the missions of research and extension. John McKissick is the Center’s Coordinator. The CAED has three primary objectives: (1) Provide agricultural, natural resource and demographic data for private and public decision makers. (2) Provide feasibility and other short term studies for current or potential Georgia agribusiness firms and/or emerging food and fiber industries. (3) Research emerging issues relevant to the well being of Georgia’s rural economy.

There are a total of 11 permanent and 2 temporary Agricultural and Applied Economics faculty with extension appointments. Five extension faculty (Greg Fonsah, Keith Kightlinger, Curt Lacy, Nathan Smith and Don Shurley) are located in Tifton, covering the major commodities of cotton, peanuts, livestock, fruits and vegetables, as well as farm and tax management. Four faculty (Cesar Escalante, Warren Kriesel, John McKissick, and Forrest Stegelin) in Athens have some extension appointments, covering livestock; agribusiness finance, management and marketing; financial analysis and economic development. John McKissick serves as the department’s extension coordinator, as well as the coordinator of the Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development. The Center includes two other permanent faculty with extension appointments (Kent Wolfe and Michael Best) and two temporary Agricultural and Applied Economics faculty (Bill Thomas and George Shumaker) paid from grant funds, as well as other part-time county extension faculty. Kent Wolfe is the Center’s marketing analyst who performs market analysis for proposed feasibility projects. Dr. Wolfe received the 2002 Julian Raburn Cooperative Service Award for work establishing the Farm Fresh Tattnall Marketing Cooperative, which was presented by the Georgia Association of County Agricultural Agents. Michael Best is the Center’s financial feasibility analyst, who performs analyses on proposed projects to determine their financial feasibility. Bill Thomas is the Center’s cooperative specialist, who helps establish producer cooperatives. George Shumaker is working jointly for the Department’s extension program and the Center in the areas of grains and oilseeds and risk analysis. Archie Flanders, Agricultural and Applied Economics faculty under the leadership of Don Shurley conducted the College’s 2002 farm bill educational efforts. The 2002 bill was especially important for Georgia farmers because it eliminated the peanut program and allowed producers a one-time opportunity to update crop bases and payment yields. Extension education was vital to help producers and landowners make wise decisions that would impact farm income by $10,000 to $100,000 per farm annually. Our faculty conducted 57 county extension meetings on the farm bill with an attendance of 3,361. Our faculty developed a computerized decision aid for program base and yield options that was used statewide to assist producers and landowners to make informed decisions. Many newsletters and web-based communications were also used to provide information and analysis and help producers and landowners with difficult decisions. The benefits of these educational efforts on the 2002 farm bill are enormous. Increased farm income from base and yield decisions alone is estimated to be a minimum of $22 million annually.John McKissick headed up a team which received a $266,000 USDA grant in 2004 to establish Georgia’s first statewide cooperative development center. The center will provide numerous resources to beginning cooperatives, including the expertise of agricultural economists. It will help people in Georgia organize cooperatives to improve their effectiveness and profits.

Both the Department’s extension program and the Center are making greater use of the Internet, posting reports, news and data for general use. For example, Warren Kriesel developed the Georgia Statistics System, an interactive web site at www.georgiastats.uga.edu. The web site customizes the statistics, maps and graphs that clients request over the web, without any specialized software installed on their computers. As of April, 2005, the website has received 895,113 hits and it has processed 134,699 requests for statistical reports received from clients at 14,323 unique IP addresses. Documented users include Walt Disney Corp., the US Senate, and nearly every school district and college in Georgia. The website has served as a model for similar services developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other land grant universities.

For more information on our web materials visit the web sites for the extension program http://www.ces.uga.edu/Agriculture/agecon/agecon.html and the Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development http://www.caed.uga.edu.

Related Links:

D1 - Extension Awards

D2 - Extension Impact Statements