7/30/02

Some communities value the service they get from their Virginia Cooperative Extension agents so much that they’ve agreed to pick up the state’s share of the agents’ salaries for the next fiscal year.
That’s good news to many farmers. Originally, 67 agriculture Extension agents and administrators were scheduled to take early retirement as of July 1, and Virginia Tech had no plans to replace them.
According to Dr. Andy Swiger, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech, 11 Extension positions will be retained in the following localities (some positions are jointly funded): Buckingham/Prince Edward/Cumberland, Chesterfield, Fauquier, Greensville/Emporia, Isle of Wight, Henry, Louisa, Nelson, Madison, Northampton and Virginia Beach. A few more local governments may soon follow suit, Swiger said.
Cooperative Extension is based in the college of agriculture, and state budget cuts last winter forced the university to craft the early retirement plan. Swiger said Extension staff is doing their best to muddle through the tight budget times.
“We’re not going to terminate any departments, we’re not going to terminate any research and Extension centers, or local Extension units,” he promised. “We’re going to keep them all going, and we’re going to do the best job that we can of serving everybody with the missions that we have.”
Swiger said he hopes for strong political support to restore funding soon, adding that Gov. Mark Warner has said he wants to double agricultural income in the next 10 years.
Extension ag agents are charged with educating farmers and home owners with the latest techniques for farming and protecting the environment. Other agents lead 4-H programs.
An additional 34 research scientists with Virginia Tech’s college of agriculture and research stations across the state also signed up for the retirement plan. While some scientists have volunteered to continue working on special projects for another year, the equivalent of 3,000 years of scientific expertise has been lost, Swiger said.