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FABE

Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering

CFAES

Educational Collaborative on Sustainable Environmental and Agricultural Management

Educational Collaborative on Sustainable Environmental and Agricultural Management - ECOSEAM: Safferman-MSU, Dr. Zhao and Rausch

Summary:  A USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant project has been developed to address emerging priority issues in collaboration with peers at Michigan State University and Purdue University.

Situation:  As rural and suburban areas continue to encroach upon each other, maintain sustainable and environment friendly agricultural productions become an extreme challenge.  Professionals are not trained to face the challenge.  There is a lack of training materials for sustainable environmental and agricultural management due to the new emerging issues and limited institution faculty resources.

Response:  With peers from other institutions, four courses have been developed: 1) agricultural air emissions, 2) animal manure management and technology, 3) decentralized wastewater technology and cluster system management, and 4) suburban/rural watershed interface modeling. OSU has developed and offered the first two courses.  The two courses had been developed into distance learning courses and offered through E-extension professional training web-site. 

Impact:  The high priority courses and training materials developed on important issues emerging in rural and urban locations have been used to train pre-professional and professionals of animal production industry with necessary knowledge and skills for management of agricultural environment for sustainable and environmentally friendly animal productions. The on-line courses can be used as educational resource for extension trainings on agricultural air quality. They will empower farmers to strive for sustainable and environmental friendly agriculture productions.