Small Farm Family Resource Development Center
(Est. 1986)
The mission of the Small Farm Family Resource Development Center is to improve the status of its clientele by providing educational and technical assistance aimed at increasing the productivity and profitability of Louisiana’s small-scale farms and addressing related clientele needs. A major part of the Center’s thrust involves the evaluation and development of ecologically and economically sound sustainable agricultural production systems. Current and future research efforts include an array of agricultural commodities such as vegetables, small fruits, herbs, small animals and the economic potential of value-added processing. The center’s programs are multi-disciplinary with collaboration among plant and soil scientists, economists and other social scientists, nutritionists, food scientists, and animal scientists. The center works closely with the Cooperative Extension Program (CEP) in developing the outreach educational and technical assistance infrastructure for program delivery. CEP’s outreach efforts are organized and intensified to reflect the strengths of the center and the College of Agricultural, Family and Consumer Sciences (CAFCS) and to address the needs of the identified clientele. Some of the research projects include the use of prostaglandins to improve the reproductive efficiency in rabbits; the use of the Boer goat genome to enhance the growth and carcass characteristics of goats; the evaluation of cultural practices for herb (dill, basal, etc.) production in the southeast; kenaf and crayfish waste as potential protein supplements for livestock feed; obesity in African-American women; drip irrigation and soil fertility; photoperiod effect on millions; and the development of sustainable vegetable production systems.