Plant Pathology: Extension

Educational Services

Extension Plant Pathology's educational programs are designed to reduce plant disease losses in Georgia by educating and assisting county agents, farmers and growers through the county delivery system. We are committed to providing the best educational diagnostic and unbiased management information to promote and sustain environmental quality. Disease management education is our business and environmental quality is the result.

Training County Agents

Iin-depth training and update training opportunities are provided for county agents. Some of this training is in the form of plant disease diagnostic clinics where live plant material is used to teach agents. Multidiscipline training on specific crops is conducted by commodity teams of which plant pathologists are a part. In addition, newsletters and other publications are provided on a timely basis as a means of on-going training.

Grower Meetings

Extension Plant Pathologists interact with growers throughout Georgia each year in more than 200 educational meetings held by county agents. Multidiscipline meetings are often coordinated by commodity specialists, but specialized meetings may address only plant pathology topics. Agents arrange such meetings by contacting specialists or through commodity agronomists, horticulturists, other specialists and district program leaders.

On-Farm Visits

Plant Pathologists visit many farms with county agents each year in an effort to both train agents and assist them in making diagnoses of disease problems and in developing long term disease management programs.

Educational Materials

Extension Plant Pathologists prepare and distribute a variety of print and electronic materials on disease diagnosis and management to aid county Extension agents in their education efforts.

Field Trials

Plant Pathologists conduct plant disease control field trials annually in cooperation with county agents, growers, other specialists, researchers and industry that provide on-farm results of new approaches to disease management.

Media

Current media (newspapers, magazines, television, radio, web) is used as applicable to provide timely information to producers. Specialists are available to make presentations or provide information.

Research/Instruction Liaison

Extension Plant Pathologists work closely with University of Georgia research/teaching plant pathologists to determine the cause, nature and management of plant diseases to provide timely and useful information to producers.

Service Functions

The Extension Plant Pathology unit operates three service laboratories.

Plant Disease Clinics -- The two Plant Disease Clinics, located at Athens and Tifton, diagnose commercial plant specimens sent in by county agents. These clinics are fully equipped for conducting varous diagnostic services. Clinic results and control information are reported directly to county agents by the pathologists assigned to a given crop.

Nematode Assay Laboratory -- The Nematode Assay Laboratory, located in Athens, processes soil and root samples for plant parasitic nematodes. This laboratory is equipped to identify the species of most parasitic nematode and provide county agents and producers with the information needed to manage nematode populations.

The programs in the Department of Plant Pathology play a significant role in safeguarding the health of plant production systems in Georgia which significantly impacts the profitability of producers. Impacts of our efforts can be found at http://www.caes.uga.edu/extension/impact.cfm