Arkansas Extension remains active
Even as many private businesses and public spaces close their doors in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, staff and faculty with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture are using alternate means to assist Arkansans from all walks of life.
Previously, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation that public gatherings should be limited to no more than 10 individuals. While much of the work of agricultural production relies on the efforts of singular individuals and small teams of farmers working vast fields, many other aspects of life have been disrupted.
In many rural parts of the state, the county extension offices are located within their respective county courthouses, which have been closed to the general public, or are open on an appointment-only basis. Sherry Beaty-Sullivan, extension staff chair in Polk County, said the office’s doors are locked, but staff is still responding to phone calls and emails. While inconvenient, the lockdown has given her staff the opportunity to take care of paperwork and planning that often gets put off during the typically busy spring planting season, she said.
Ironically, the things holding up agricultural production in the state have almost nothing to do with a pandemic, but rather intermittent rains that have kept soils saturated in many areas of Arkansas. Chris Grimes, extension agricultural agent for Craighead County, said that growers in his area have been waiting for a dry spell long enough to prepare their fields for planting.
He said most seed retailers and other farm supply retailers in the area remained open as of this week, and that they would likely be unaffected by any domestic or foreign trade disruption, at least in the short term.
