Call Your Local University Cooperative Extension
Often abbreviated: Call Your Local Coop Ext.
What is an Extension office? Why should I call one? What do they do?
Introduction - What is an Extension Office?
All universities engage in research and teaching, but the nation's more than 100 land-grant
colleges and universities, have a third critical mission - extension. “Extension” means “reaching out,” and - along with teaching
and research - land - grant institutions “extend” their resources, solving public needs with college or university resources through non-formal,
non-credit programs.
These programs are largely administered through thousands of county and regional extension
offices, which bring land-grant expertise to the most local of levels. And both the universities and their local offices are supported by Cooperative State
Research Education and Extension Service (CSREES), the federal partner in the Cooperative Extension System (CES). CSREES plays a key role in the land-grant extension
mission by distributing annual Congressionally appropriated formula funding to supplement state and county funds. CSREES affects how these formula funds are used
through national program leadership to help identify timely national priorities and ways to address them.
Congress created the extension system nearly a century ago to address exclusively rural, agricultural issues. At that time, more than 50 percent of the U.S.
population lived in rural areas, and 30 percent of the workforce was engaged in farming. Extension's engagement with rural America helped make possible the
American agricultural revolution, which dramatically increased farm productivity:
Fewer than 2 percent of Americans farm for a living today, and only 10 percent of Americans now live in rural areas. Yet, the extension service still plays
an important role in American life - rural, urban, and suburban. With its unprecedented reach - with an
office in or near most of the nation’s approximately 3,000 counties - extension
agents help farmers grow crops, homeowners plan and maintain their homes, and children learn skills to become tomorrow’s leaders.
The Cooperative Extension Today
Despite the sharp decline in the size and economic importance of rural America, the national Cooperative Extension System remains an important player in
American life. It has adapted to changing times and landscapes, and it continues to address a wide range of human, plant, and animal needs in both urban
and rural areas. Today, extension works in six major areas:
- 4-H Youth Development - cultivates important life skills in youth that build character and assist them in making appropriate life and career choices. At - risk youth participate in school retention and enrichment programs. Youth learn science, math, social skills, and much more, through hands - on projects and activities.
- Agriculture - research and educational programs help individuals learn new ways to produce income through alternative enterprises, improved marketing strategies, and management skills and help farmers and ranchers improve productivity through resource management, controlling crop pests, soil testing, livestock production practices, and marketing.
- Leadership Development - trains extension professionals and volunteers to deliver programs in gardening, health and safety, family and consumer issues, and 4-H youth development and serve in leadership roles in the community.
- Natural Resources - teaches landowners and homeowners how to use natural resources wisely and protect the environment with educational programs in water quality, timber management, composting, lawn waste management, and recycling.
- Family and Consumer Sciences - helps families become resilient and healthy by teaching nutrition, food preparation skills, positive child care, family communication, financial management, and health care strategies.
- Community and Economic Development - helps local governments investigate and create viable options for economic and community development, such as improved job creation and retention, small and medium-sized business development, effective and coordinated emergency response, solid waste disposal, tourism development, workforce education, and land use planning.
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Regardless of the program, extension expertise meets public needs at the local level. Although the number of local extension offices has declined over the
years, and some county offices have consolidated into regional extension centers, there remain approximately
2,900 extension offices nationwide. Increasingly, extension serves a growing,
increasingly diverse constituency with fewer and fewer resources.
What Does the Cooperative Extension Have to Offer the Home Gardener?
Some of the services provided at your Local Cooperative Extension Office, often for free or a nominal charge, are:
- Soil testing
- Fact Sheets on cultural requirements, diseases and pests
- Information on Frost Dates
- Plant Recommendations by Area
- Wildlife Deterrent Info
- Most offices have hours when you can bring in a sample of your plant problem, or garden insect, for identification.
- Some offices, for a small fee, will make house calls, to help you identify why your plant is ailing.
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In the public domain: "U. S. Department of Agriculture."
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