7 ,A~! 0 2006
January 2006 International Vol. 17, No.1
1 UNIVERSITY OF
S. FLORIDA .
A C.
Where UF/IFAS travels the globe!
UF/IFAS Intemaonal Programs Office of the Vice President for Agriculture & Natural Resources Gainesville, Florida 32611
Restoring Hope:
From the .UF/IFAS Helps
director Afghanistan's
Women Farmers
Afghanistan Protect Human
Director Health and Improve
Named Living Standards
i::By Roger :.ochrane "Lockie" Gary, director
L of Hardee County's Extension
A big hearty UF/IFAS welcome office, spent 31 days in remote Afghani
A to Dr. Daveid Sammons who villages in September and October of
has accepted the leadership posi- 2005, bringing help for Afghanistan's
tion for IFAS International Pro- livestock farmers and hope to the
grams. We look forward to having people of this war-ravaged nation.
him here by August first of this Because women are responsible for the
year. As one of the accompanying care and productivity of livestock in
articles indicates ne brings with him Afghanistan, Gary's visit gave him a
a broad range of experience which truly unique opportunity to work with
lhe can use to build on our program Afghanistan's farm women. Gary
here, In the meantime we need to Afghanistan's women, such as this served as a livestock consultant to the continue on. woman churning butter, hold the Land O'Lakes International Division
All IFAS faculty members should responsibility for livestock care
and productivity. IFAS training on a USAID grant entitled "Dairy Inhave received an announcement brought health, hope, and higher dustry Revitalization in Afghanistan." regarding the availability of travel income to 24 remote villages and grants for international travel. The 708 Afghani families. Gary braved six rocket attacks, the primary objective for having those i threat of suicide bombings and kidgrants is to encourage early career INSIDE: napping, and extremely tight security
Sfacultymembers to begin to Expanding horizons: Seven measures to teach veterinarians how to
facuty embrs o bginto Epaninghorzon: Sven field-test for brucellosis and tuberculodevelop working relationship with Borlaug Scholars from Africa their peers abroad. & UF/IFAS mentors establish sis; how to screen cattle for mastitis;
A NASULGC committee under the long-term programs how to synchronize estrus in cows and
lIeadershipof Dr. Bobby Moser has Conservation workshop in heifers for artificial insemination; how
lben aershpartici io theas Colombia to semen-test bulls in conjunction with
Board meetings of the recently PK Nair receives major honor Breeding Soundness Exams; and how established presidential US-India UF/IFAS lands sweet deal with to conduct fecal examinations and Knowledge Initiative. Several UF EARTH University, Costa Rica identify larvae in cattle and small rufaculty have provided input into Putting the brakes on minants.
the discussions. The process should environmental damage Gary also taught 9 women Extension
result in identifying and developing amo UF/IFAS welcomes David volunteers, who will teach Afghani relevant long term collaborative Programs director farm women how to improve their
See Director, p. 2 See Afghanistan, p. 3
Telephone: 352 392-1965 FAX: 352 392-7127 Website: http://international.ifas.ufl.edu
Visit the e-version for complete stories and even more International Focus news! http://international.ifas.ufl.edu/news.htm
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Expanding
Horizons:
UF/IFAS hosted seven Borlaug Burkina Faso,
Cameroon,
Scholars Ghana,
T he UF/IFAS Inter- Nigeria,
I Senegal
national Programs office brought seven women scientists from Africa to study at UF under the Borlaug Scholars program. These outstanding women represented Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and Burkina Faso. Each scientist was paired with a mentor on the UF/IFAS faculty, with a wide variety of disciplines represented amongst the group. The scholars were given an overview of the UF/IFAS structure as a landgrant institution and met with faculty from UF/IFAS departments and research and education centers, from UF's Center for African Studies, and attended a luncheon with women administrators, organized by the Gender, Environment, Agriculture and Participation (GEAP) Program. They also participated in a Gender Analysis Seminar led by gender analysis experts as a precursor to their final project, a Gender Analysis Seminar before an audience in the UF/IFAS Communication Services distance education classroom. The scholars attended classes at UF, including a resource management in African agriculture course, and attended seminars in Tallahassee at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU). The Borlaug Scholars program will allow the visiting scientists to form long-term cooperative research and extension programs with UF/IFAS, including 2006 mentor visits to the nation of the scientist they mentored, enriching the societies each institution serves.
IP director Roger Natzke said, "The Borlaug management team visited
Borlaug Scholars, Mentors, and International Programs Director Roger Natzke at farewell reception. See website for full article! http://international.ifas.ufl.edu
Gainesville to observe the program in action. After a very productive dialogue I am confident that IFAS is in an excellent position to host Fellows from other countries in addition to West Africa in subsequent years." The Borlaug Fellows program is high IP's priority list because it provides opportunity for UF/IFAS faculty members to gain international exposure and foster ongoing international collaboration. -: Contact: Roger Natzke, natzke@ufl.edu
Bor!aug Scholars and Mentors: Scholar Flora Nelson-Quartey, Ghana
Mentor Jeffrey Brecht, UF/IFAS horticultural sciences Scholar Mourfat Balogun, Nigeria
Mentor Eric Simonne, UF/IFAS horticultural sciences Scholar Nome Sakane, Burkina
Faso
Mentor Sabine Grunwald, UF/ IFAS soil and water science Scholar Patience Asem, Ghana Mentor Lisa Guion, UF/IFAS family, youth and community sciences
Scholar Regina Ntumngia, Cameroon
Mentor Marta Hartmann, UF/ IFAS agricultural education and communications Scholar Adeola Adenugba, Nigeria
Mentor Roger Natzke, director, UF/IFAS international programs Scholar Fatou Diop, Senegal Mentor Jane Polston, UF/IFAS plant pathology
'Conservation Workshop in Colombia
M/ arta Hartmann, Clmi
J Head of the UF/IFAS Gender, Environment, Agriculture and Participation (GEAP) Program, Elena Bastidas, Visiting Research Professor at the UF Center for Latin American Studies, and Omaira Bolafios, PhD student in Anthropology facilitated a workshop in Cali, Colombia organized by~ the project Training and capacity bwdmg in community -based conserv'a tion for institutions working in protected areas of Ecuador and Colombhia Thzis
project is funded by the MacArthur Foundation and executed by the TCD Program at UF's Center for Latin-Americans Studies, which is now collaborating with IFAS faculty through International Programs. Hartman and Bastidas also spent half a day at Centro Intemnacional de Agricutura T ropical (CIAT)Ibefore attending the workshop. ** Contact: Elena Bastidas, bastidas@fuse.net
Do you have an international story to share? Contact the editor at leevans@ifas.ufl.edu to let us know your international activities!
2 Focus
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Afghanistan, from p. 1 livestock's health, how to increase dairvproduction, and how to time their milking to the collectors' arrival, doubling the prices they earn for their product. His training has helped participating farmers double their milk production. Extension volunteers must teach participants on a one-toone basis in the farmers' homes and only with permission of male relatives.
Gary's Field Day included Afghanistan's first-ever livestock show, with best-of categories for cattle, camels, sheep, and goats. Gary served as one of four judges for an event that brought smiles, laughter, and joy to a nation torn by 23 years of continuous war, terrorism, and domestic slaughter under the Taliban. His success is best summed up by the president of one village's shura (ruling council): "We have 85 farmers in this area cooperating in the Land O'Lakes Dairy Revitalization Program. Their cows are producing more milk and the farmers are more profitable. But we have 1100 farmers in this village and we need all of them involved in this program."o.o Contact: Lockie Gary, lagary@ifas.ufl.edu
UF/IFAS lands sweet deal
with EARTH .
University Costa Rica
M eetings on January 23rd and
24th brought visitors from
EARTH University (Escuela de Agricultura de la Region Tropical Humeda) in Costa Rica to the Everglades Research and Education Center in Belle Glade to discuss cooperative sugarcane research projects at EARTH's La Flor farm. These meetings, a follow-up to an IFAS delegation's visit to La Flor in August 2005, allowed faculty from both universities to draft joint research projects and
Putting the
Brakes on
Environmental r,
Damage Czech
t's an odd marriage, Republic &
but it promises to Slovakia
be a unique and important one. Jack Rechcigl, professor and director of the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center (GCREC), has initiated a cooperative agreement to mitigate environmental damage from automotive brake shoes, composites containing up to 30 compounds that produce toxic dust from friction. The new interdisciplinary agreement will team up environmental scientists at GCREC, the Center for Advanced Fiction Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), and faculty from VSB Technical University of Ostrava in the Czech Republic, which supports heavy industry. "We're very excited about the joint project," Rechcigl said, "because it will allow UF/IFAS to work in a wholly new arena." Heavy industries in the region want to mitigate damage to the environment from the products they manufacture. The agreement follows a visit by Czech partners to UF, where they met with UF president Bernie
assign grant-writing responsibilities to fund joint research in sugarcane, the region's most economically important crop.
Additional research will include varietal selection, sugarcane biofuel, green cane harvesting, germplasm, and pest research. The faculty delegation that visited La Flor last August from Everglades REC and Southwest Florida REC consisted of Kelly Morgan, Chris Waddill, Ike Ezenwa, Gregg Nuessly, Mabry McCray, Robert Gilbert, Curtis Rainbolt, and Ron Rice. They met with EARTH faculty, industry representatives, and visiting professors in a very productive dialogue. .* Contact: Robert Gilbert, ragilbert@ifas.ufl.edu
Jack Rechcigl, right, signs for UF
Machen and UF/IFAS Senior VP Jimmy Cheek.
Partners in Ostrava will ship brakeshoe dust to the U.S. for environmental testing. Laden with heavy metals and other toxic materials, brake dust adversely impacts air, soil, and water quality. The project's partners have developed a multi-million dollar National Science Foundation grant proposal which they hope NSF will approve.
Rechcigl also traveled to Slovakia, where he visited the Slovak Agricultural University of Nitra, signed a cooperative agreement, and lectured to a standing-room-only crowd. Next month, graduate student Sylvia Slomova will study weed science under Jim Gilreath.o:. Contact: Jack Rechcigl, rechcigl@ufl.edu
P.K. Nair
Receives
Major Honor Ghana
T he University of Science and
Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, has honored P. K. Nair, Ph.D. with a Doctor of Science honoris causa degree, conferred at a special congregation on November 26, 2005, for his outstanding contributions to the development of agroforestry worldwide. Nair, a distinguished professor at the UF/IFAS school of forest resources and conservation, is a world leader in the subject. He has received many national and international recognitions, including an honorary doctorate from Kyoto University, Japan. -*, Contact: P.K. Nair, pknair@ufl.edu
January 2006 3
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Office of International Programs University of Florida IFAS
Office of the Vice President for Agriculture
and Natural Resources P.O. Box 110282 Gainesville, FL 32611-0282 http://internationa.ifas.ufl.edu/news.html
International Focus Editor
Linda Evans
Educational Media/ Communications Coordinator leevans@ifas.ufl.edu International Focus Executive Editor
Don Poucher
Assistant Vice President info@ifas.ufl.edu
International Programs Personnel
Roger Natzke
Senior Associate Dean and Director, International Programs natzke@ifas.ufl.edu Lisette Staal Assistant Director, International Programs Imstaal@ifas.ufl.edu
Betty Finn
Accountant
blfinn@ifas.utl.edu
David Sammons Named New Director for IFAS International Programs
A fter an international search, Jimmy
Cheek, senior vice president of agriculture and natural resources at the University of Florida, announced that David Sammons, Ph.D., will assume directorship of the UF/IFAS International Programs office effective July 25, 2006. He leaves Purdue University after thirteen years at the helm of Purdue's office of International Programs in Agriculture (IPIA) and concurrently completes a two-year assignment with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he has been working on behalf of university partnerships for development in the USAID Office of Agriculture for the past two years.
Cheek told the IFAS community, "I am confident that Dr. Sammons' experience, coupled with his vision for IFAS' future role in international program activities, will be instrumental in our development of a world-class program." Randy Woodson, Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture at Purdue, noted that
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Sammons expanded the agricultural study abroad component of Purdue's international programs dramatically during his tenure. Beginning with less than one student a year, agricultural study abroad has grown to the point that it included to a full 23% of the Purdue College of Agriculture's last graduating class. Sammons also led an effort to pioneer internationalization of Extension, making Purdue a national model.
UF/IFAS search and screen committee chair James W. Jones, distinguished professor with UF/IFAS agricultural & biological engineering, spoke highly of Sammons and the entire pool of more than 30 candidates. Many were highly qualified for the position, Jones said.
Sammons is a widely traveled and well published international scholar with diverse experience ranging from more than 25 years of university teaching, research, and leadership to development of webbased and traditional curricula for high schools via such diverse entities as the National FFA and the Philippine Bureau of Public Schools; has trained USDA Foreign Agricultural Service personnel through USDA's Graduate School; and was se-
David Sammons, Ph.D. has been named the new director for UF/ IFAS International Programs. Sammons leaves the directorship of Purdue University's International Programs in Agriculture after building Purdue's IPIA office into a national model of success. He will begin his UF/IFAS IP directorship effective July 25, 2006.
lected as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer for a portion of an academic year in Kenya, to name just a few highlights. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines and later established a Master's International Program focused on Extension crop protection with a Peace Corps option. Sammons testified before the US House Committee on Foreign Operations re: increased federal funding for international agricultural research. His career grants and gifts total more than $3 million. While certain that David Sammons will be missed at Purdue University, UF/IFAS is truly delighted to welcome him aboard. **. Contact: Jimmy Cheek, jgc@ufl.edu or Jimmy Jones, jimj@ufl.edu
Visit the web for full versions of all articles! http://international.ifas.ufl.edu/news.html
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