Rationale

Small fruit crops are knowledge and technology-intensive enterprises, and all the land grant universities in this region have their strengths and weaknesses with regard to expertise and information dissemination with these crops. It is far more cost effective to meet the demands for small fruit crop information and research with a regional approach that capitalizes on the individual strengths of each cooperating land grant university. This is the basic premise on which the Consortium is founded. It originally involved Clemson University, the University of Georgia, and North Carolina State University, and was initially established as the Southeastern Small Fruit Center in January 1999. In March 2000, the name was changed to the Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium. The reason for the name change was to include all the Southern Universities not just those in the Southeast. In 2002 the University of Tennessee joined consortium.

Mission

The long term mission of the Consortium is envisioned to involve collaborative efforts at various sites across the region between small fruit growers and grower organizations, industries and service organizations allied with and/or serving small fruit growers, agricultural extension programs and research stations working together to enhance the development of the small fruit industries in the region.

Administration

The Consortium is administered by a Steering Committee involving one administrator, two faculty members and one small fruit grower organization officer (or grower representative) from each state involved. The administrators on the Steering Committee also make up the Executive Committee of the Consortium. Present administrators include: Julia Kornegay, North Carolina State University; Ted Whitwell, Clemson University; Doug Bailey, University of Georgia; Neil Rhodes, University of Tennessee; and Tony Wolf, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Present faculty representatives include: Richard Hassell and Powell Smith from Clemson; Gerard Krewer and Scott Nesmith from Georgia; Jim Ballington and Bill Cline from North Carolina State; David Lockwood and Jim Willis from the University of Tennessee; and Jeremy A Pattison and Richard Allen Straw from Virginia. Industry representatives are Nancy Edwards from Tennessee; Victor Lilley from North Carolina; and Adair Chambers from Georgia. The chair of the Steering Committee is a faculty member, with service on a rotating basis. The present chair is Tom Monaco. Budgetary and administrative services for the Consortium are housed at N.C. State. The Steering Committee meets officially during the SR-ASHS annual meeting each year and expenses to attend the meeting are paid by the Consortium.

Successful activities of the Consortium over the last several years

• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University(VA Tech) joined the Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium effective September 1, 2005. They are the fifth southern university to become a member. VA Tech was one of the original universities involved in creating the regional consortium but did not become a member at its inception in 2000. We are pleased that VA Tech has joined the consortium and look forward to working with our colleagues in Virginia.
• A county agent in-service training on bramble production in the south is being planned for January 8, 2005 at the Southeastern Fruit and Vegetable Conference in Savannah, GA. Additionally, an educational session for growers on bramble production is being sponsored by the SRSFC at the conference on Friday morning January 7, 2005. Details on both of these meetings will be posted on our web site under events as the programs are developed.
• Three extension grants totaling $10,000 and twelve research grants totaling $56,600 were awarded in 2004 to faculty in the four member states. An additional $9000 is being leveraged from the IR-4 Performance program to match two of the research grants dealing with pesticide evaluations.
• A county agent in-service training on site selection for small fruits was conducted at the Edgewater Hotel May 10-11, 2004 in Gatlinburg, TN. Twenty agents from the four member state(NC,SC,GA,TN) received full scholarships to attend. A total of 23 agents attended including two from Kentucky.
• The SRSFC has been an advocate and taken a leadership roles in pursuing registration of pesticides in small fruit crops. In 2003 this included Stinger herbicide for control of winter weeds in strawberries and various insecticides for control of crown borer in brambles.
• Thirteen research grants totaling $58,750 were awarded in 2003 to research and extension specialists in NC, SC, GA and TN to fund applied research projects.
• The SRSFC was featured in the December 2003 issue of the Growing magazine, pages 24-25. The author Jean Rightmire entitled the article "A Fruit's Best Friend-A look at the Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium". Jean starts off the article with the statement "Fruit growers throughout the southern United States have a strong advocate and education force in their corner through the Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium".
• A county agent in-service training on anthracnose of strawberries was held at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel, Research Triangle Park, NC November 11, 2003. Nineteen agents from NC,SC, GA and TN recived full scholarships to attend the training and the Southeast Strawberry Expo which ran November 9-11 at the same location. A total of 35 agents from the four consortium member states and VA attended the workshop.
• The consortium web site was revamped in the fall of 2003 making it an easier site to navigate.
• Awarded grants in the amount of $47,000 to researchers and extension specialists in the Carolinas and Georgia to fund applied research projects in 2001, and $40,000 in 2002.
• Sponsored an extension agent training short course on Bramble Production in Raleigh, NC in February 2002 involving 19 agents from the three member states.
• The Consortium was one of the major sponsors of the joint North American Strawberry Growers Association/North American Bramble Growers association annual meeting in Raleigh, NC, February 2002.
• Sponsored an extension agent training short course on Wine Grape Production at Fletcher, NC in January 2002 involving 21 agents from the three member states plus 7 agents from Kentucky.
• Sponsored a blueberry production extension agent training short course across two locations, Wilmington, NC, and Savannah, GA, in January 2001, involving 15 agents from the Carolinas and Georgia.
• Cosponsored a bramble crop workshop during the Southeast Fruit and Vegetable Expo. In December 2000.
• Sponsored a second strawberry plasticulture extension agent training short course at Columbia, SC, in October 2000, which included 30 agents from the Carolinas and Georgia, plus 4 agents from Alabama and Arkansas.
• Cosponsored two FQPA pesticide risk assessment reviews at NC State University during 2000 covering all the Small Fruit Crops and involving specialists from the Carolinas, Florida, and Virginia.
• Sponsored a strawberry plasticulture extension agent training short course at Raleigh, NC, in November 1999, involving 10 agents from the Carolinas and Georgia, and 9 additional agents from Arkansas, Maryland, and Virginia.
• The Consortium Website is up and running and housed at the University of Georgia: Web site - http://www.smallfruits.org/

The Consortium will continue to offer at least two regional Extension Agent Short Courses each year with emphasis on those programs or commodity areas with the greatest need for development and/or improvement in professional competence. It will also continue to award grants on a competitive basis to researchers/extension specialists in member states on an annual basis for applied research in small fruits. Grant proposals involving collaboration across disciplines and/or member institutions will be strongly encouraged. Individual awards will be modest in size and are intended primarily as "seed grants" or "startups" to foster collaborative relationships which will hopefully lead to more substantive grant proposal submission activities by the individuals involved as the work progresses.

The Consortium has also submitted major proposals to the IFAFS initiative in 2000 and 2001. Each of those years our proposal has been highly rated but not funded. We will continue to pursue this and other major sources of grant funds in pursuit of our mission.

Membership

Membership in the Consortium is open to all Land Grant Institutions in the Southern Region of the US. The potential benefits of membership are outlined in the rationale and mission statements above, and realized benefits to present members in the activities sections.

Membership Dues

Annual dues are $35,000 for each of the four present members. However, when additional states join the Consortium, the amount may be renegotiated.

For further information on membership or activities of the Consortium please contact:

Tom Monaco
Chairperson, Steering Committee
Box 7601
110B Patterson Hall
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7601
e-mail tom_monaco@ncsu.edu