National Science Foundation Boosts Precision Ag Program Coffers with $400K Grant

Logan Dyer, right, a Precision Ag student at Clark State, talks with Ohio State University associate professor James Jasinski about the drone they’ve been using to map their pumpkin field at the OSU Research Farm Tuesday. (Photo Credit: Dayton Daily News Staff/Bill Lackey

Logan Dyer, right, a Precision Ag student at Clark State, talks with Ohio State University associate professor James Jasinski about the drone they’ve been using to map their pumpkin field at the OSU Research Farm Tuesday. (Photo Credit: Dayton Daily News Staff/Bill Lackey

Clark State Community College’s fledgling precision agriculture program will likely grow more quickly with the award of a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, reports Jeff Gilbert via the Dayton Daily News.

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One in seven jobs in Ohio are related directly or indirectly to agriculture, said Aimee Belanger-Haas, Clark State dean of business and applied technologies, and the state faces a shortage of skilled agriculture workers.

The No. 1 goal for the new grant is to create a pipeline for recruiting students for the program entering its third year, she said. Of the 100 students in the agriculture program, 15 are studying the field of precision.

“It’s really getting the word out about what it is,” she said. “The high school ag teachers really don’t have a good understanding.”

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Starting this summer teachers from a nearly 50-mile radius will be invited to attend workshops designed to educate them about precision agriculture so they can include the concepts in their curriculum.

Read the full story from Gilbert over on DaytonDailyNews.com.

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