Lynda Hassel is a petit woman, but her ambition stands 10 feet tall. She is cultivating a concept to diversify her family farm by resurrecting three greenhouses that have been ignored for years. She didn’t see any potential in them until she was selected to participate in the Small Farmer Agricultural Leadership Institute at the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center.

By networking and studying agricultural opportunities and leadership with other limited-resource farmers participating in the Institute, Hassel said she saw an opportunity to become more successful on her goat farm in Alto, Texas. She has begun preparing her greenhouses to include aquaponic food production, a water recycling system used to raise fish, and grow plants.

"I didn’t know of the potential until I heard (other participants) talking," said Hassel, who will participate in the Institute through March. She plans to commercialize her system once she has completed a business marketing plan and other Institute coursework.

Thirty-five other universities have established similar training programs to help farmers become more competitive, but none of them has crossed the threshold of helping to sustain minority and limited-resource farmers as the Southern University Ag Center’s Institute has, Dawn Mellion Patin, agriculture specialist and Institute director, said.

The Institute is one of the Ag Center’s programs created to foster human and economic development.

In fact, as part of Southern University’s land-grant initiative, the Ag Center has the specific mission to conduct research and disseminate knowledge that meets Louisiana resident’s scientific, technological, social, economic, and cultural needs.

Southern University Ag Center’s cooperative extension programs are the vehicles of education and research resources from Southern, other land-grant institutions, the USDA, and county/parish administrative units.

"We explore issues in more detail and provide education programs and teaching experiences that, in essence, will give (participants) opportunities to succeed," said Adell Brown, vice chancellor for finance and administration.

The Center’s family and human development department is one example. It provides childcare center owners like Juanita Dent in Baton Rouge with specialized, state-required training to maintain home-based centers. Just this year, the 66-year-old grandmother, her daughter, Arnita, and granddaughter, Kristin, expanded the business into a child care development center and moved into a five-room Class A facility in Scotlandville.

The Center offers these training session throughout the state into the childcare centers or after hours to ensure its availability to all centers who may need the training immediately.

Extension is believed to be the world’s largest adult and youth outof-school, informal educational organization, using homes, farms, and businesses as classrooms. The Ag Center’s field of work is primarily grounded in agriculture, home economics, youth, and human development.

Whether it is teaching co-parenting skills through its Full Circle Parenting Program or establishing goat cooperatives, the agents, researchers, and staff of the Ag Center have one charge: to link Louisiana citizens with opportunities for success. These opportunities have come from helping rural entrepreneurs build better businesses and explore new agricultural ventures. Among these are pastured poultry, mixed-species animal production, organic certification, and native grass conservation.

When Disciple Baptist Church in Ville Platte determined a technology center was needed in Evangeline Parish, technology specialists from the Center for Rural and Small Business Development were on hand to install computers and provide training to community members.

The lab offers computer classes for adults, LEAP tutoring, and small business technical assistance, while connecting with the school system to help parents and students contact teachers by email during homework assistance. The specialists are helping starting and struggling entrepreneurs with business plan development and outreach tools. They host homebuyer education workshops, business management sessions, and an annual conference for small contractors to learn effective bidding strategies for government contract opportunities.

While Ag Center nutrition specialists and food scientists explore functional foods impacting chronic diseases and food safety methods to control pathogenic bacteria, social scientists investigate Louisiana's persistent poverty that affects 24 percent of the rural population.

With the many upheavals in our nation’s economy, poverty has impacted every aspect of Louisianans' lives from employment and childcare to truancy and access to health. But through field research and outreach, we have a better picture as to how to address the social issues that confront us, said Gina E. Eubanks, vice chancellor for extension.

It is the "cooperative extension" mission of the Ag Center that embodies the overall vision of the Southern University System and its fiduciary commitment to the United States Department of Agriculture. This mission gives momentum to Ag Center agents like Sarah Sims (Madison Parish), Hendrix Broussard (Orleans Parish), and Chris Robichaux (St Martin/Iberia parishes), who take gardening concepts into schools and transform small plots of school property into an agricultural playground for third and fourth graders to learn science, math, and nutrition. It gives purpose to research findings of Ag Center horticulturalists, urban forestry scientists, and animal scientists who conduct field days and workshops, presenting options for growers and producers that will best suit Louisiana’s climate and soil content.

The extension mission also gives purpose to Ag Center horticulturalists, urban forestry scientists, and animal scientists who conduct field days and workshops that present research-based options for growers and producers. Likewise the research-based knowledge acquired by family, human development, and youth specialists are taught to childcare providers, parents, prisoners, and social service workers to directly impact residents.

For Diana Kimble, the Ag Center’s Wildlife and Native Grass Outreach Project gives her and her sister the insight to rebuild her grandfather’s farm in Colfax into a sustainable enterprise.

"The (project) gave me hope that I could move forward with my plans…I can now grow safe and affordable food for my community." To better position constituents for success, the Center's community and economic development specialist and agents champion specific community change efforts to impact housing, establish business and community organizations, and strengthen community leadership.

Human and community development is most important. It gives legs to our research and puts critical information into use, said Kirkland Mellad, vice chancellor for research.

For Kimble, the impact of working with the Ag Center is simple and direct: "I can help my family and community for generations to come," she said.