The Research, Extension and Education Centers (REECs) that are part of MU’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) Experiment Station are embarking on a new model of partnership with the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that seeks to open doors further to landowners involved in agriculture across the state who wish to better manage their land.
“The purpose of this project is to enhance the adoption of conservation practices that will increase crop productivity, improve adoption of water management practices and enhance water quality,” said Jeff Case, director of the Northern Missouri REEC and the administrator of the NRCS grant that is making the project possible.
This educational position will talk to producers who own land within each REEC’s region as well as conduct workshops, demonstrations and trainings.
Technical assistance personnel will serve as a resource to landowners to help with implementation. This help will include a number of things, Case said, including identifying possible cost-share programs to relieve the financial burdens of implementation and creating plans specific to their property with recommendations for which stacked practices are most likely to be effective for each landowner. Stacked practices are when a landowner is using multiple conservation practices on one piece of land.
“Farmers may have questions about which stacked practices will work best for their property or their farming setup,” Case said. “This person would help them come up with that recipe that will work best for them and their goals.”
Each REEC is currently working to fill these positions, and this new assistance should be available to Missourians starting this spring.
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Categories: Missouri, Crops, Education