{"id":80214,"date":"2025-11-11T15:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T20:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/?p=80214"},"modified":"2025-11-11T15:35:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T20:35:21","slug":"on-the-backroads-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/news\/on-the-backroads-again\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Backroads, Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

In what has become a nearly annual tradition, the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative<\/a> hit the road this fall, giving researchers from multiple disciplines the chance to learn about key problems facing North Carolina agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Backroad Tour, held Sept. 29-30, took over 30 researchers from five NC State University<\/a> colleges and N.C. A&T State University<\/a> on a bus trip to the western part of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like tours in 2022<\/a> and 2023<\/a>, this year\u2019s expedition gave participants the chance to learn more about farm challenges and potential solutions and to build relationships with other experts, growers, agricultural leaders and Extension agents and specialists to tackle them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Rachel Vann, director of N.C. PSI\u2019s platform for extension outreach and engagement<\/a>, explained, \u201cThe overarching goal is to connect people who aren’t from an agricultural background with applied issues and stakeholders so they can really understand what are the problems that need to be solved, see them with their own eyes, and form teams to address those problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get to concrete solutions .. you have to have the computer scientist and the crop specialist and all of these other areas of expertise together, talking \u2014 and talking with the producers that have the challenges.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Along with staff and faculty from the N.C. PSI, participants included researchers from NC A&T and NC State\u2019s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences<\/a> (CALS), College of Natural Resources<\/a>, College of Engineering<\/a>, College of Sciences<\/a> and the Wilson College of Textiles<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Amy Grunden, an N.C. PSI faculty affiliate and CALS\u2019 co-interim associate dean for research<\/a>, noted, \u201cThis kind of networking, along with seeing how these production operations really happen, is going to make a difference when it comes to innovation that helps our growers feed people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo get to concrete solutions that make a difference,\u201d she added, \u201cyou have to have the computer scientist and the crop specialist and all of these other areas of expertise together, talking \u2014 and talking with the producers that have the challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leveraging the N.C. Ag Analytics Platform<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the tour\u2019s first stop at N.C. A&T State University in Greensboro, participants learned more about the N.C. Ag Analytics Platform<\/a> and its capabilities, and they were encouraged to think about how it could be leveraged to address regional challenges and opportunities they\u2019d hear about during the rest of the tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funded in 2024 by the state General Assembly, the platform taps the power and potential of real-time and historical data to enable farmers to increase agricultural productivity and sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Large
Tour participants included researchers from five NC State colleges and N.C. A&T State University, plus representatives of NC State Extension, the NC State Office of Research and Innovation, the N.C. PSI, the Golden LEAF Foundation and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The platform is a partnership of NC State, N.C. A&T and SAS Inc<\/a>. SAS\u2019 Dominique Moon, N.C. A&T researcher Hermandeep Sharma and Ag Analytics Program Manager Brad Lewis discussed a range of platform projects designed to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n