UMES Extension’s Small Farm Conference culminated a productive year of providing extension services for Dr. Naveen Kumar Dixit. The assistant professor of horticulture and UMES Extension specialist is also a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education fellow and the NE-SARE coordinator. As such, he “promotes different NE-SARE grants to faculty, students and farmers.”
At the conference last month, Dixit presented a SARE grant writing training session resulting in three farmers applying for its farmer grants relating to honeybees, strawberries, quinoa and exotic fruits. Participants, he said, learned how to design a research problem, prepare a budget and learn what purchases are allowed, or not allowed, from grant money.
“Guiding our local farmers and learning from their innovative ideas is a unique opportunity to work together for a common goal to provide safe and healthy food to all,” Dixit said.
This past year, Dixit conducted training sessions on cultivating apples, pears and Asian vegetables that included three online and in-person workshops in addition to a field day and online cooking class. He also worked with farmers who are military veterans over the course of four face-to-face educational events.
“We will conduct multiple workshops online and face-to-face in the new year,” Dixit said.
Visit these sites for more information on UMES Extension’s Horticulture and Fruit Program and future UMES Extension events.
Gail Stephens, agricultural communications and media associate, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, gcstephens@umes.edu, 410-621-3850.
Photo by Todd Dudek, agricultural communications, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, tdudek@umes.edu.
