National agriculture center for two-year colleges kicks off with $9 million award
The Community College Alliance for Agriculture Advancement — or C2A3 — recently announced an initiative with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service to create a national agriculture center for two-year colleges and connect more students to agriculture career pathways.
The $9-million, four-year program is part of a cooperative agreement between C2A3 and NRCS. C2A3 is a collaboration of nine schools across eight states that began eight years ago as a 501c3 organization.
Member schools include Central Lakes College, Staples, Minnesota; Clark State College, Springfield, Ohio; Illinois Central College, East Peoria, Illinios; Ivy Tech Community College, Lafayette, Indiana; Lake Area Technical College, Watertown, South Dakota; Northcentral Technical College, Wausau, Wisconsin; Northeast Community College, Norfolk, Nebraska; Northeast Iowa Community College, Calmar, Iowa; and Richland Community College, Decatur, Illinios.
Keith Olander, director of AgCentric and the Central Lakes College Ag & Energy Center, said this program will pool the strengths of these colleges to prepare technicians for USDA and NRCS.
"We continue to bring about interns for NRCS ... They've interned and they have taken full-time positions and it's really been exciting to see that career path really balloon," Olander said. He said the work to educate NRCS interns on real farm settings at the Ag & Energy Center has worked well.
The need to train up the next generation of USDA and NRCS employees is immediate and a nationwide issue, Olander added. That's what put emphasis behind seeing this national ag education program move ahead.
"We all have to understand that there is a workforce crisis in agriculture," Olander said.
He said filling workforce positions is something they have been working on, but the need persists and is growing across the country.
"It's just how do we help fill the void," Olander said. "And that's what this project aims to do is to help bring about more workforce and more talent through the pipeline with the idea that they would enter into natural resources careers."
Community College Alliance for Agriculture Advancement Executive Director Tracy Kruse said that the consortium began with a focus on the Midwest, but the aim is to expand to at least 50 community and technical college members by the end of the four-year award.
C2A3 is working to develop expertise and regionally specific programming and curriculum that can be replicated across the country. Through this alliance, member colleges can access these resources and gain assistance in building partnerships with their local and state USDA-NRCS offices.
Astrid Martinez, director of the Conservation Planning and Technical Assistance division with NRCS, has been active in getting this agreement established.
"C2A3 schools will increase students' interest in agriculture, natural resources, and conservation, with a focus on preparing students for USDA jobs. National skill standards will be developed in natural resource conservation, precision agriculture, and agronomy," said Martinez in a statement. "This is an important step in developing the next generation of agricultural leaders."
The national ag education consortium will also encourage applied research and outreach activities on college farms and urban agriculture facilities. Several C2A3 schools already have continuous projects in place that are related to soil quality, water quality, urban agriculture, livestock and grazing.
Proposed projects include artificial intelligence and precision livestock; crop drainage and irrigation management; soil quality, field/pasture renovation, and cover crops; water quality, pond, and wetland management; silvopasture management; and urban agriculture.
At Central Lakes College, the focus will be on using cover crops and livestock in cropping rotations to measure soil microbial health and organic matter gains, while building an economically viable model to share with producers and professionals that support producers through programs at NRCS.
At Northcentral Technical College in Wausau, Wisconsin, President Jeannie Worden said this investment will support the college's expansion of educational offerings in the areas of soil health improvements and water quality testing and improvements, as well as investments in sustainability through solar panels and innovations in pasture development, both of which align with NRCS standards for natural resources stewardship.
"The rapid growth of technology in agriculture requires colleges to be nimble and respond quickly to changes within the industry," Kruse said. "This alliance will support the colleges and provide them the tools to rapidly respond to the workforce needs within agriculture."
This agreement will fund the hiring of four employees to implement this work, including the hiring of a national director, an instructional designer, an outreach coordinator, and an executive assistant. These positions will work remotely and will be accessible to all member institutions and USDA-NRCS as the partnership is built. The Alliance is expected to start this work immediately.
