Online or in workshops, Certified Crop Advisers learn from UI Extension

Eleven years ago, the nation’s first “class” of Certified Crop Advisers took their initial certifying exam. Today, they number 15,000—690 in the five-state Pacific Northwest region alone.Much of the research-based information these CCAs convey to their clients is developed at the nation’s land-grant universities and delivered by extension faculty at grower meetings each winter.

“We have a direct link to research and ready access to information that’s close to the cutting edge,” says Don Morishita, superintendent of the UI’s Kimberly Research and Extension Center and a former CCA local board member.He calls training CCAs “an opportunity for us to really raise the level of knowledge to crop advisers and the growers they work with.”

The CCAs must pass two qualifying exams in four major competency areas, document two years of crop-advising experience,earn 40 educational credits every two years, and agree to uphold a code of ethics that puts their customers’ profitability ahead of their own and optimizes and protects natural resources.

“CCAs have demonstrated their competency in the management of crops, nutrients,pests, soil, and water,” says Scott McKinnie, executive director of the Far West Agribusiness Association and CCA program agent for the Pacific Northwest. “That doesn’t mean they can guarantee a grower 5 more pounds of potatoes,but it does mean that they have kept updated on changes and that their advice and ability to work with growers have improved.” In 2002 and 2003, Pacific Northwest CCAs could select from 1,858 available credits, many of them offered by extension faculty.

UI brings CCA tests online
This spring,UI Extension Specialist Brad Brown is taking extension’s contribution beyond the development of certifying exams and delivery of content - rich seminars to a series of online tests. In cooperation with faculty at Oregon State University and Washington State University, Brown will soon make it possible for CCAs to earn continuing education units on the Web. The team began with a Pacific Northwest publication on nutrient management for onions and is adding a spring barley production guide and a zone management bulletin. CCAs will read the publications closely, then take online tests.

“I think it’s terrific,” says McKinnie.“It’s a joy to work with somebody like Brad, who sees the vision of where this can go.” Contact Brown at bradb@uidaho.edu.

© 2004 University of Idaho, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.