10/15/02

When Virginia’s Gov. Mark Warner announces his proposed spending cuts for next year’s budget, many Virginia farmers will be hoping for the best and expecting the worst, according to Virginia Farm Bureau experts.
Already, the state’s farm research and Cooperative Extension programs are reeling from spending cuts imposed last year and going back to the 1980s.
According to industry sources, another round of budget cuts would reduce the Extension outreach program to about one-third of its staff as of 20 years ago. Thirty-seven localities would be without an agriculture and natural resources agent, leaving approximately one-third of the state with no local staff to help farmers and homeowners.
“These agents not only provide daily assistance to all Virginians, but in many localities they are the principal individuals charged in assessing damage from drought and other natural disasters,” said Spencer Neale, senior assistant director of commodities and marketing for the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. “For instance, livestock producers in more than a dozen Virginia counties will miss out on federal drought aid this year, because their localities missed the deadline to file for assistance.”
As of July 1, the number of Extension agriculture and natural resource agents slipped from 122 to 95, thanks to an early retirement program last spring.
The number of 4-H youth specialists dropped from 94 to 72. Any future budget cuts would cause additional early retirements or even layoffs. Some county agents already are leaving to work in the private sector, Neale said.
Under the budget scenarios being discussed, 48 localities would be without a 4-H agent next year. More than 180,000 Virginia children currently are taught character skills and environmental facts by 4-H, and in some localities it is the only youth training program available.
And Virginia farmers would be without research specialists in some critical fields such as cotton, small grains and turf grass. Cotton growers are particularly worried, Neale said, because most of them also raise peanuts. With the federal peanut quota program ending and prices plummeting, many peanut growers in southeastern Virginia are looking to switch to cotton.
“When a producer has a disease or insect problem, he can’t just look on the Internet for help. In many cases, it takes someone with personal knowledge of a crop to actually look at a problem taking place in a field and analyze the source,” Neale said.
“If we’re going to reach Gov. Warner’s goal of doubling farm income in the next 10 years, we need these scientific experts in these fields and others to help our producers succeed.”
A Virginia Tech study found that every dollar spent on research results in increased agricultural production worth $9.10, and that each state dollar spent on Extension programs results in $3.87 more production, Neale said. And Extension programs have been greatly augmented with the help of 41,000 volunteers, who provided more than 1.1 million hours of work for fellow Virginians last year. Those programs will disappear without professional staff to direct them, he said.