Farm and Communities Tour Showcases Rural North Carolina
July 31, 1998
Greensboro, NC: From a crime victims' assistance program in Durham County to shiitake mushrooms in Martin County, the 1998 North Carolina A&T State University School of Agriculture Dean's Small Farms and Communities Tour showcased Cooperative Extension efforts in eight northeastern North Carolina counties.
Nearly 100 participants, including Extension administration and specialists, participated
in the two-day tour.
The tour's first stop was the Weaver Street Community Center in Durham, where Durham
County 4-H Extension agent James Miller showcased a multi agency effort (involving
Cooperative Extension, the Governor's Crime Commission, and the Durham County Department
of Housing and Urban Development) to assist crime victims living in low-income
communities, and A&T Extension's leadership development program, Community Voices.
From Durham, the tour traveled to the Joseph and Lucy Allen Farm in Vance County,
where Vance County agriculture and natural resources technician Wayne Rowland explained
that it doesn't take a lot of acreage for a diversified production mix. Always willing to
experiment with new alternative crops, the Allens are conducting a trial for a new variety
of pumpkin, and have been a major presence at the Vance County Farmer's Market.
Next, the group learned about Extension's involvement in community improvement efforts,
while attending a luncheon at the Peachtree Community Center in Nash County,
approximately three miles from Spring Hope. In their community of between 75 and 100
families, Peachtree residents have been working to develop recreational facilities and
other community improvements for more than 20 years.
Not long after Nash County CRD Extension agent John Gibson introduced A&T Extension's
Community Voices and other leadership development programs to the residents of Peachtree,
the Peachtree Community Development Organization was chartered as a nonprofit organization
by the State of North Carolina. The Peachtree Community Development Organization has since
gone on to secure a $25,000 grant from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human
Services for establishing a community center.
1997 Small Farmers of the Year Larry and Barbara Jean Pierce of Halifax County then
led the tour around their 39-acre farm, about three miles south of Roanoke Rapids. With
Halifax County Cooperative Extension agricultural agent Haywood Harrell's help and careful
planning, the Pierces have been able to increase their farm profits impressively by
reducing labor costs and increasing production.
The future of agriculture was seen in the form of 15-year-old Caleb Parker's Newland
Nurseries, the tour's first stop in Pasquotank County. Parker, owner of the rural
business, credits his high school agricultural studies, participation in FFA, and a youth
loan from the Farm Service Agency for his success in farming.
Youth opportunities were also the focus of the tour's second Pasquotank County stop, as
the group was treated to a briefing on "Building Tomorrow's Leaders," during a
dinner at the Pasquotank County Extension Center in Elizabeth City. In this multi-county
effort, Extension personnel in Pasquotank, Perquimans and Camden counties are working
together to coordinate a program which teaches teenage girls about career opportunities
and success through proper business etiquette and standard job application processes.
During the dinner, participants in Building Tomorrow's Leaders used the presentation
skills learned through the program to share how they feel the program has helped them.
Farming activities in Bertie and Hertford counties, and a welfare reform
program were on the docket for the tour's first stop of the second day at the Bertie
County Extension Center in Windsor.
Sharing their farming experiences with the group were William and Jessie Rae Moore, and
William Ward. The Moores, farmers since 1978, were runners-up for the 1998 G. L. Dudley
Small Farmer of the Year Award. Though peanuts and soybeans are the current mainstays on
their 33-acre farm, the Moores are planning to move into vegetable production.
Ward, a lifelong farmer, owns approximately 280 acres and rents another 230 acres. With
farm land in both Hertford and Bertie counties, his major crops are tobacco, cotton,
peanuts and soybeans.
Next, Bertie County 4-H Extension agent Bettina Odom presented "Empowering to Succeed
in the Workplace," a welfare-to-work program she coordinates in Bertie County. In
addition to Odom's presentation, program participants shared their experiences with the
program which gives participants 84 hours of training, covering such topics as financial
management, parenting skills and goal setting.
In Martin County, the tour visited the Bennie Bunting Farm. Bunting, a one-time
swine producer who was forced to look for other enterprises when low prices for swine made
the profit margins risky, now grows shiitake mushrooms in former swine buildings. A grant
through North Carolina A&T's Ways to Grow program helped Bunting get his shiitake
operation in full gear, and he now grows all of his mushrooms in sawdust blocks and
wholesales them up and down the East Coast through commercial brokers.
The Bunting farm also recently added aquaculture to its production mix. Bunting showed the
tour how he converted the rings of old grain bins into fish tanks.
At a luncheon at the West Martin School, in Martin County's Oak City, the tour learned
about a showcase Down-to-Earth program coordinated by Christine Manning, a 4-H program
assistant.
Down-to-Earth is an in-school educational program designed by a team of Extension
specialists from North Carolina A&T State University to teach elementary school
children the scientific method through gardening projects.
On the tour's final stop in Raleigh, Morris Dunn, a Wake County agricultural
Extension agent, explained how many farmers in his area are capitalizing on their county's
rapid urbanization.
Two of those farmers are Loyied and Barbara Norris, winners of 1998 G. L. Dudley Small
Farmer of the Year Award. The Norrises use a strong sense of customer satisfaction and the
Cary farmer's market to sell their wide variety of produce.
To take advantage of the large number of horse enthusiasts in Wake County, James Dunn is
using his farm to offer boarding and training facilities.
Another Wake County farmer who has found a way to adapt to the new economic realities
facing agriculture in the area is Brian Richardson. Richardson grows cucumbers on 60
acres, and, after discovering that he wasn't the only cucumber grower in the area in need
of grading facilities, he built his own grading facilities.
Lastly, Wake County 4-H program assistant Nedra Davis provided an overview of education
efforts targeting parents of children ages 5 and under, in several limited-resource
neighborhoods in Raleigh, using "Smart Start" funding.
Community Voices training modules developed by A&T specialists will be used to help
these parents learn how they can identify and influence public policy decisions which will
have a significant impact on the environment in which their children spend their formative
years.
According to Dr. Daniel Lyons, assistant administrator of regional and county field
operations for A&T's Cooperative Extension Program, the tour was designed to showcase
outstanding small-scale farming operations and community vitality in North Carolina.
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For more information, please contact Dr. Daniel Lyons, NC A&T Cooperative Extension
Program, (336) 334-7024.