Like many other young people, plant pathology graduate student Russell Ingram’s friends have an epic road trip planned for this summer. The difference is that instead of setting off for a music festival in the desert or visiting a beach, Ingram’s pals are hitting the road in search of jobs.

University of Georgia Cooperative Extension county agents will now come to farms to teach a series of pesticide-focused trainings to agricultural producers through a new, unprecedented training initiative.

This time of the year gardeners get excited about their soon-to-be-planted spring vegetable gardens. They envision lush rows of perfect pods of peas, scrumptiously delicious sweet corn and big, beautiful tomatoes. University of Georgia Extension urges gardeners to wait and put some thought and vision into their garden first.

With reports of declining monarch butterfly populations and honeybee deaths, the plight of pollinators and other beneficial insects has been headlining the news for months now.

Complaints over off-target movement of chemical applications went down 48 percent from 2014 to 2015, but Georgia farmers must better understand the factors that influence drift, according to University of Georgia weed scientist Stanley Culpepper.

A tiny fly is having a huge impact on American fruit farmers. Known as spotted wing drosophila, the insect is costing famers more than $700 million a year in lost produce and prevention costs.

Women own 13.6 percent of America’s active farms and their farms produce almost $13 billion worth of goods each year. Just like male farmers, they need access to business and technical information to help make their farms successful. But while many pride themselves on not needing a “women’s only” class on how to work the land or run a business, many other women simply feel more comfortable learning around other female farmers.

Pesticides can be helpful in controlling insects and diseases, but there are chemicals that should be handled with care. To educate pesticide users, University of Georgia Extension has planned pesticide safety and handling classes in Albany, Savannah and Perry this February and March.

Georgia residents can safely dispose of old pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and other chemicals at the Clean Day, set for Thursday, Nov. 12, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Brooks County Extension office in Quitman, Georgia.