UMCA News Release
UMCA to host Agroforestry Research Symposium Jan. 6 at MU
December 11, 2009
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The interim director of the USDA National Agroforestry Center will speak on “Agroforestry in America: New opportunities for a sustainable future” at the Inaugural Agroforestry Research Symposium Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010, at the University of Missouri.
Andy Mason, NAC interim director, Washington, D.C., will speak beginning at 9 a.m. in Stotler Lounge, Memorial Union, on the University of Missouri campus.
The MU Center for Agroforestry will host this first symposium to showcase the research, resources and possibilities in agroforestry across the nation. Agroforestry, the practice of integrating trees into traditional agriculture, provides habitat for wildlife; diversifies farm income; and improves water and soil quality.
The symposium also will include presentations by David Burner, Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Center, USDA-ARS, Booneville, Ark., “Regional Collaborative Research on Diverse Biofuel Grasses”; Ranjith Udawatta, Stephen Anderson and Peter Motavalli, department of soil, environmental and atmospheric sciences, MU, “Agroforestry’s Environmental Services: Drawing the Big Picture”; and Mike Gold and Larry Godsey, MU Center for Agroforestry, “Specialty Crop Industries for the Midwest.”
The event, which runs until noon, is free and open to the public. Posters will be on display beginning at 8:30 a.m. Poster display space is available to MU graduate students performing research in fields related to agroforestry, including water quality, entomology and rural sociology. Please contact Julie Rhoads, UMCA events coordinator, at 882-3234 or rhoadsj@missouri.edu, before Dec. 21st to reserve a display board.
For more information about the symposium contact Shibu Jose, director of the MU Center for Agroforestry, at 882-0240 or joses@missouri.edu, or go to http://www.centerforagroforestry.org.
Michelle Hall
Senior Information Specialist
Center for Agroforestry University of Missouri
573-882-9866
hallmich@missouri.edu
Source:
Shibu Jose, 573-882-0240
