CARI: Center for Applied Rural Innovation
Date of this Version
April 2007
Abstract
From 1992 to 2005, 586 research and development grants were awarded to farmers and ranchers in the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program’s North Central Region (NCR SARE). Two hundred were granted in the states of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, alone. Farm/ranch research ideas for crop and animal production, processing, and marketing were innovations in their communities and regions. They were also relevant to farmers’ and ranchers’ day-to-day lives, questions to which they needed answers, in part because the information was not accessible through traditional agricultural education means.
These farmer/rancher researchers learned a great deal from their projects, engaged in local outreach, and filed their reports with the regional office. But, the information didn’t seem to effectively percolate up to SARE decisionmakers, State SARE Coordinators, Land Grant University Extension Agents, NGO staff and others, where it could guide future work and funding priorities.
Comments
Published by the Center for Applied Rural Innovation, University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Copyright © 2007 by Julia Kleinschmit Rembert and Elaine Cranford.