|
|
          |
 |
Competitive Research Grants and Awards December 17, 1999 Ms. Terri Joya Dear Ms. Joya: I am writing to address the priorities of the Integrated Research, Education, and Extension Competitive Grants Program as printed in the November 19, 1999 Federal Register. My first comment relates to the importance of taking an integrated approach to agricultural related issues. Clearly, these issues do not respect disciplinary or functional lines and we need to invest much more heavily in integrated approaches to come up with results that actually address the problems as they exist in the real world. A number of USDA funded research programs have taken too narrow a view of issues from a production science standpoint and tended to not overlook the role of broader social and economic systems in which the farm producer or rural resident exists. If these issues are to be effectively resolved, research and education programs that are lead by (or include in a significant way) economists and social scientists will be needed. Second, I have a more specific comment on the Water Quality subject matter area in the program description. With external funding (non-land grant), I have initiated several multi-state and state and local educational programs efforts involving partnerships. These have been quite successful. The availability of seed money, the requirement for a partnership, and the availability of technical support were some of the key ingredients in the success of these projects. (Some other ingredients are contained in a Penn State publication titled: Community Groundwater Education in Pennsylvania: Lessons from Successful Project Leaders). Agricultural-related water degradation was addressed by only a fraction of the local initiatives that were undertaken as part of these projects. There are many critical ag-related water issues in Pennsylvania, the Northeast, the Middle Atlantic States, and Great Lakes States. More issues will arise in the future due to changes in agriculture and in rural demographics. Partnerships are an extremely effective way to organize and create innovative educational approaches to water quality education. But they can be challenging to organize and manage. Additional funding is needed to help extension and other organizations use existing methods for conducting education and research and to develop and evaluate new ones. Integrating the human, organizational and public policy dimensions of water quality issues will be critical to the success of future research and educational programs. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this new and exciting program. Sincerely yours, Charles W. Abdalla USDA: Integrated Research, Education, and Extension Competitive Grants Program Public Statements
|