The drought of 2012 is nearly history, but UNL Extension already is looking ahead to the possibility of a 2013 drought, even as it helps Nebraskans contend with the effects of this year’s.
“Drought is often not a one-year event,” said associate dean Rick Koelsch. “We need to be making plans now if the drought continues into 2013. What decisions do we need to make now to best position us for how we’re going to farm in 2013? That’s what our extension faculty are doing – identifying issues and bringing some solutions forward.”
To that end, extension faculty participated this week in one of four regional workshops to outline resources available to assist with drought recovery efforts. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack opened the Omaha session.
Vilsack said President Obama had directed federal agencies to take every possible step to help farmers and ranchers, businesses, and rural communities recover as a result of one of the country's worst droughts in decades. USDA is partnering with local, state and federal partners to hold the workshops, working closely with the Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to facilitate these meetings.
The workshop was sponsored by
UNL Extension, the National Association of Counties, and the mayor of Omaha. Agencies represented included USDA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Small Business Administration.
Koelsch said UNL extension faculty are busy helping Nebraskans recover from this year’s drought while also planning for the possibility of it continuing into next year. It will be a major topic of extension’s winter programming across the state. He said a team of extension faculty met in Kearney recently to lay out plans for how to address these issues in programming.
“We survived the first wave of issues this summer, but now there’s a number of other emerging issues to work through,” Koelsch said.
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/hdy