Nation's county agriculture agents gather in Charleston

Published: July 13, 2012

CHARLESTON — South Carolina plays host next week to the people who bridge the gap between America’s farms and the science that sustains them: the nation's agricultural Extension agents.

The National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) holds its annual meeting and professional improvement conference at the Charleston Area Convention Center through Thursday, July 19.

The meeting brings together hundreds of agents from across the United States who work for the Cooperative Extension Service, a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the land-grant universities in each state.

In South Carolina, Clemson University operates Extension offices in each of the state’s 46 counties.

Programs during the five-day meeting range from traditional agriculture topics, such as farm and ranch management, livestock production and controlling insects and weeds, to recent scientific advances in areas like remote-sensing, which employs such techniques as satellite-based measurements to improve crop production.

A pair of sessions will be devoted to sustainable agriculture, a field that studies the balance between human food and fiber needs and environmental concerns.

Cathie Woteki, U.S. undersecretary of agriculture for research, education and economics, is among the keynoter speakers for the conference.

County agents began meeting to share ideas under the NACAA banner two years after the Smith-Lever Act established the Cooperative Extension Service in 1914. The federal law directed land-grant universities to develop practical applications of their agriculture research and to deliver improved production methods to farmers.

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