About the PDP

The first PDP competitive grants were funded in 1995. Since then, nearly 100 projects have been funded to spread knowledge on sustainable agriculture in the Western Region. In addition, PDP has funded more than 200 state or protectorate implementation grants, typically conducted by state PDP coordinators in each of the Western Region's 17 states and island protectorates. The variety and breadth of PDP grants reflect the geographic and agricultural diversity of the far-flung Western Region.

Here are a few recent examples:

• Nevada extension educators produced "People of the Land," a self-paced, eight-chapter curriculum examining the historical, social and economic attributes of Indian reservations within a four-state region of the West.

• An Oregon non-profit sponsored workshops addressing how to enhance conservation buffers and other on-farm habitats to increase populations of beneficial insects, as well as providing one-on-one technical assistance to agricultural professionals to address project-specific needs.

• A Hawaii PDP project collected, improved access to and distributed key information on cover crops and green manures appropriate for farmland use in the Pacific region.

• A five-state project involving educators in Hawaii, California, Oregon, Idaho and Colorado has designed and distributed educational materials to agriculture and community development professionals on successful direct marketing channels and strategies.

• Nearly 40,000 copies of the Pocket Guide to Prairie Birds and approximately 1,000 copies of the North American Bird Reference CD-ROM were distributed throughout Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Montana by a non-profit to assist producers with integrating birds into their management efforts.

• Information and video footage gathered on a tour of commercial aquaculture operations in Thailand, which has comparable environmental conditions and produces species important to the U.S. affiliated Pacific islands, were used to develop videos and workshop materials that have been used to conduct workshops for agricultural professionals and producers on Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa.

Agriculture professionals who want to become involved in the Western SARE Professional Development Program will be interested in the guiding legislation that established the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.

For more information, call 307.837.2674 or fax 307.837.2963.

Click Western Region states on pop-up for state-specific information.