For more than 100 years, the Penn State Cooperative Extension has prided itself on providing practical education and problem-solving to residents of all 67 counties in Pennsylvania — on a personal level.
But with Penn State University's College of Agriculture facing a likely minimum 10 percent decrease in state funding next year, according to Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed budget, officials are struggling to find avenues that would ensure the tradition continues.
The program's approximate $70 million annual budget operates on state, local and county funding, as well as grants and contracts, and has managed to remain steady, despite gradual cuts in state money over the past few years. Tuition is not used to fund the program.
Officials have managed to maintain the program with federal stimulus dollars and by not filling positions vacated by retirements.
But that all will end on July 1, 2011, when stimulus money is no longer available, state funding may be cut by millions of dollars and operating costs will undoubtedly continue to rise.
"In essence, we've been losing purchasing power," said Ken Balliet, extension director for Snyder, Northumberland and Montour counties.
Michael McDavid, regional director of the Northeast Region of the cooperative extension, said by July of next year, Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences "will be looking at a $11 million deficit."
Even federal grants are hard to come by now. Instead of direct allocations through federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, organizations are left to fight for extremely competitive grants. Thankfully, Penn State remains a respected and highly competitive organization, Balliet said.
Long history
The Penn State Cooperative Extension was formed in 1904, and by 1920, every county in Pennsylvania had an agricultural agent — an employee of Penn State — who was taking what was learned through research at the university and making it useful to the farmers in those counties.
Those agents were generalists, however.
As animal science and genetics of plants became a little more complicated, the extension office needed specialists.
Cows provided 9,000 pounds of milk in the late 1970s. They can now be milked for 24,000 pounds because of knowledge gained through research on genetics, nutrition, cow comfort and milking techniques.
And in the fields, while 90 bushels of corn could be grown on an acre in the 1970s, the land can now yield double that.
Educators at the cooperative extension offices were responsible for not only sharing the new knowledge with farmers, but helping them apply it.
Ninety-five percent of the extension's funding goes to pay for these educators, who teach and provide problem-solving for production agriculture, energy and natural resources, home and family (including the popular 4-H program), yard and garden and community and economics. They are paid through the university.
Previously, several educators with varying specialties were based in each county office. Now, with funding decreases, only one specialist remains in each of Union, Montour, Snyder, Northumberland and Columbia counties.
Horticulturist John Esslinger is one of them.
After working in the Lackawanna County office for more than 14 years, Esslinger was asked to take the place of the Central Susquehanna Valley's horticulturist who recently retired. He now is based in Montour County, but covers the entire northeast region for this specialty.
"When somebody retires, they eliminate that position, and ask others to cover those responsibilities," Esslinger said. "It just makes it harder for everybody."
"We're still trying to keep all the programs going," he added. "It just keeps you running more."
Future fears
The skeleton crews remaining in the county offices worry about the future.
"Any changes in staffing would result in no one being in an office, and a possible closing," Balliet said, "and that's what we're concerned about."
The geography of the Valley's five counties would allow for a commercial center, Balliet said, which "might lead us to consolidate."
Some states, he said, put all the educators in one central office, making operations more efficient, and saving money on office supplies, for example. Money saved through such a move would allow the local extension region to hire someone who is really needed, such as an educator specializing in dairy — the largest agricultural industry in the Valley, but not represented in the Central Susquehanna Valley extensive offices.
The cooperative extension, however, is a grass-roots organization, Balliet said. It has the ability to reach into each community with programs that is unmatched by anything else in the state.
"Do we want to give that up and not say that anymore?" he asked.
McDavid said: "We feel our presence in every county is critical to our mission. I do not foresee that we will give up our presence in any county. We are proud of that county partnership."
Snyder County, for example, budgets about $125,000 each year for the program, including provision of a building, operating costs, an employee for the 4-H program and a secretary.
And one-on-one contact with the farmers is crucial to forming a trusting relationship, Esslinger said.
"Once people have met you, then when they have a problem, they'll come to you," he said. "Until they made that personal contact, they won't come to you for help."
It would be extremely challenging, he said, to continue that if any county offices were forced to close.
Balliet said that whatever the changes to come, the extension has no intention of jeopardizing the 4-H program, in which there are more staff involved than in any other program.
"I think all of the things that we do are important," Esslinger said. "I wouldn't want to see any of it go away. I think it's all important to the people that we work with."
McDavid said officials have no plans for any cuts in staffing.
Balliet said several years ago, the extension began charging people to come to educational meetings that were previously free. Participants in extension meetings should probably be prepared to pay more in the future in order to attend, he said.
However, that means that Penn State will be expected to increase the quality of those programs, he added.
The emergence of the Internet must also be not only recognized but applied, Balliet added. Before its existence, the cooperative extension was the only place for farmers and others to find answers to problems they were having with home economic or farming issues.
"We realizes changes are happening," Balliet said.
Educating farmers through the Internet, including social networking, he said, is a possibility that has been discussed. "The bricks and mortar thing" has really changed, he added.
Cooperative extension officials have not made any solid plans yet. Instead, they are turning to their first priority for some assistance — the residents. "We're very conscious of what we do," Balliet said. "This is taxpayer money."
So they ask their stakeholders to tell them what they want. A survey may be taken at http://futureofextension.pbworks.com.
n E-mail comments to tpursell@dailyitem.com.
