Georgia, one of the original 13 colonies, has a land area of 57,701 square miles and a water area of 1,706 square miles, which makes IT the largest state east of the mississippi river (21TH overall)

Georgia falls within five major physiographic regions: the blue ridge mountains in the northeast; the ridge and valley province and the cumberland plateau in the northwest; the piedmont across central georgia; and the coastal plain in the south. Elevations range from sea level to 4,784 feet at brasstown bald in the blue ridge mountains. The 2020 census estimated georgia's population was 10,711,908 and reported 23.8% of georgians are under age 18 and 13.9% are 65 or older. According to the census,51.9% of georgians identify themselves as white/caucasian, 31% as black/african-american, 4.5% as asian,.5% as american indian/alaska native, .1% as native hawaiian/pacific islander, and 6.9% as more than one race. IT was also reported that 10.5% of georgians identify as hispanic or latino. Georgia's cooperative extension program has 167 offices, with programming in all of georgia's 159 counties. UGA personnel are housed jointly in county offices. Extension delivers programming in agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer sciences, and 4-h youth development as both individual county efforts and as multicounty programs. State faculty members deliver training to county agents and programming directly to clientele, when appropriate. UGA research programs are conducted through the agricultural experiment station system. Georgia has several campuses throughout the state; its four largest are located in athens, fort valley, tifton and griffin. Georgia has eleven research and education centers strategically located throughout the state. This joint plan of work was developed around core programs and targeted issues. Using a structured program development system, georgia develops core program directions and identifies targeted issues. The georgia program development model is a multistep process that is operational every year. The model includes a method for assessing needs and identifying problems. IT also includes program evaluation to determine impact. The georgia program development model works in unison with multiple advisory systems at both county and state levels. Faculty members associated with this plan are working on cutting-edge programs. They provide information and input from both the academic literature and personal knowledge. This input is equally important to program development as is a strong advisory system. The georgia federal plan of work does not attempt to capture all of the work of the colleges' faculty members. IT is intended to document the plans and actions of the faculty members receiving specific formula funds. The majority of these funds are used to support state-level core programs. These core programs cover a wide range of topics, including traditional animal and plant production, positive youth and family development, urban agriculture, personal health and well- being, and emerging issues, such as biofuels. The goals of these programs are to demonstrate short- and long-term impact. However, the greatest impacts of these core programs are the foundations created to support and leverage additional resources beyond state-matching funds. The additional state funding, county funding, grants and gifts leveraged as a direct result of the work in this plan may create the greatest final impact. Most of georgia's planned programs include outcome measures that track the output levels of leveraged programming. The outputs of these leveraged programs are considered a direct, short-term outcome of the core planned programs within the georgia federal plan of work.