Ann M. Steensland, deputy director for the Global Harvest Initiative, will deliver the keynote address at this year’s Sixth Annual International Agriculture Day reception. The event will be held from 3:30-5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, at the Georgia Museum of Art. Hosted by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Office of Global Programs, the talk and reception are free and open to the public.

The Georgia Urban Ag and Outdoor Expo seeks to educate the public on the roles that urban and traditional farming play in supplying food to a continually growing nation. To that end, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension poultry scientist Claudia Dunkley and UGA Extension agent Steve Pettis will be among the host of presenters at the event.

Many food items, including fresh fruits and vegetables, would never make it to grocery store or farmers market shelves without the help of beneficial insects like honeybees and butterflies. The number of these pollinating insects in the U.S. is declining, and to help, Georgia agricultural experts developed a statewide plan to teach gardeners and landscapers how to care for their plants and protect these vulnerable insects that are vital to food production.

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.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded organization that that strives to help farmers with disabilities, the AgrAbility Project in Georgia is set to host an expo in Tifton, Georgia, to introduce farmers to equipment designed to assist those with disabilities.

Amanda Wilbanks, owner of Gainseville’s Southern Baked Pie Company, baked her way to the grand prize with her caramel pecan pie in the University of Georgia’s 2016 Flavor of Georgia Contest.

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.

Overly wet weather in Georgia’s major row crop regions during February 2016 has farmers worried that soggy soil may delay corn and peanut planting or cause fungal diseases to be a major issue later this spring.