The georgia plan of work (POW) encompasses a five-year period beginning october 1, 2023

The plan addresses major agricultural issues as well as other problems facing rural and urban areas, nutrition, the environment, families, and youth. Georgia's POW represents a coordinated effort between fort valley state university and the university of georgia thus presenting one joint POW and annual report to USDA. The joint POW include core programs and targeted issues such as animal production, community/home and life skills, food safety and quality, health and wellness, plant production, sustainability/conservation and the environment, youth and family development, urban agriculture, and emerging issues, such as biofuels and drone technology. USDA funds for these core programs support state-level core and targeted issues facing georgia citizens. The georgia program development is a multistep process that is operational annually. The model includes a method for assessing needs and identifying problems. IT also includes program evaluation to determine impact of extension educational trainings. The model works in unison with multiple advisory systems at both county and state levels. Goals of these programs are to demonstrate short and long-term impacts. State funding such as state match, county funding, grants and gifts leveraged as a direct result of the work in this plan aids in creating the greatest final impacts. The research portion of the plan of work undergoes scientific peer review prior to each project being submitted. All scientists are required to have active projects for expenditures to be made. Each project is peer-reviewed by both internal and external reviewers and must be approved by the appropriate dean and director prior to submission to the national institute of food and agriculture. Most applied research programs are developed based on feedback from the stakeholders through the extension contacts and basic research are conducted to find specific scientific answers or to make discovery. Current animal related projects involve efficient production systems including assisted reproductive technology and nutrition, animal health and wellbeing with internal parasite control, and economic prosperity a ND marketing using sheep, goats, and cattle as models. Climate smart agriculture was introduced this year along with other 1890 institutions under the 1890 multistate climate change project within the evans-allen program. The food safety program emphasizes non-thermal methods to control food born pathogens in meat and nuts. Plant production program encompass a broad array of targeted fields of study that include entomology, plant pathology, nematology, plant breeding and genetics, soil science, postharvest physiology. Some of these projects are done in collaboration with ARS scientists on commodity of great importance to the state of georgia. Funding from the federal allocation and the corresponding matching fund from the state are used to cover expenses related to these activities. Additional funds come from external grants secured by the research scientists. Applied research projects using these funds target mainly limited-resource producers in the state but scientific discoveries impact the citizen of state of georgia, the country, and the world.