MORGANTOWN — The Core Community Center is the only meeting scheduled locally for residents wanting to help develop strategies over five years that could shape the future of agriculture in West Virginia, according to a press release from the West Virginia Conservation Agency.
Based on survey results from more than 500 stakeholders, the West Virginia Agricultural Advisory Board identified eight key opportunity areas to consider. They are: Increasing access to farmland through preservation, restoration and affordability; increasing agritourism; boosting the pool of qualified farm labor; increasing access to higher-value markets (big cities, restaurants, institutional purchasing); boosting the number of processing facilities and commercial kitchens; increasing local demand for West Virginia-grown products; placing more emphasis on new farming techniques (forest farming, high tunnels and hydroponics) and evaluating the efficiency of existing operations (such as fencing or liming); and increasing the pipeline of new farmers through education and training.
Meetings are being held at 14 locations across the state.
The one in Core will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
During those meetings, guests can help turn the opportunity areas into strategies, the release states.
Registration for any of the meetings is at wvagadvisory.org. Those who register also can take a short survey to choose the key opportunity areas they wish to focus on during their area meeting.
Other locations for the West Virginia Ag Community meetings include Charleston, Sutton, Martinsburg, Philippi and Lewisburg.
A steering committee has been formed to guide the creation of this five-year strategic plan to grow the agriculture economy. According to the release, the committee includes representatives from the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, the West Virginia Farm Bureau, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development in West Virginia, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in West Virginia, the West Virginia Conservation Agency, WVU Extension Service, WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design and the West Virginia State University Extension Service.
Other partners in the community meetings include the state’s 14 conservation districts and the West Virginia Association of Conservation Districts.
