Our Impact
Making A Difference in Our County
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension is working hard for its constituents. The following are examples of Extension’s impact in the county over the past year.
Agriculture and Natural Resources
Ag commodities grown in Crisp County – such as pecans, peanuts, cotton, watermelons, etc. – averaged a Farm Gate value of $180 million dollars. The ANR program in Crisp County focus on sharing information to help clientele increase the production and value of these commodities. The ANR program continued decades long efforts to combat Fusarium wilt in watermelon, one of Crisp County’s major crops, by assessing the efficacy of grafted plants. These studies reduced Fusarium incidence over 50% indicating the potential save producers >$9,000/A in high risk fields. In addition to research, site consultations and phone contacts constitute the bulk of communications directly with stakeholders – totaling over 400 consults.
4-H
Crisp County school attendance is of grave concern to the entire community due to student absenteeism, checking out early or coming to school late. Learning and student attendance is in direct correlation to a student’s success in school and adulthood.
Students who attend school regularly have been shown to achieve at higher levels than students who do not have regular attendance. Maintaining regular attendance and punctuality is crucial for all students. Understanding the importance of attendance and showing up for school every day lays the foundation for success. By attending class regularly, a student is more likely to keep up with daily lessons and assignments and take quizzes and tests on time. Research has shown that a student’s regular attendance may be the greatest factor influencing his/her academic success.
FACS
Liz Clarke works with community wide collaborative partners to deliver high quality programming for Crisp County. Liz teaches Food, Fun and Reading at Crisp County Pre-K to teach stuents My Plate and the 5 food groups. She also encourages youth to exercise by offering yoga classes at the Cordele-Crisp Library during the summer. Her adult education classes include financial education, VITA, ServSafe, and continuing education for food services workers. She offers hands-on workshops such as jam making and green cleaning. She also offers programming to encourage parents to read to their children such as Baby Bookworms. She is working in collarboration with Crisp ANR & 4-H Agents as well as the Rotary CLub on the Pre-K raised bed gardens and programming. Liz coaches the Crisp County 4-H Cotton Boll and Consumer Judging Team. She writes articles for the Codele Dispatch and appears regularly on the noon day show with WSST. She delivers publications full of research-based information to organizations like child care centers, as well as diabetic community members. She offers the Prevent Type 2 Diabetes course to help pre-diabetics prevent diabetes. As the family and consumer science agent, Liz works hard to provide expertise through training, research and publications to positively affect community members.