Creating a Community of Practice for Blueberries

Abstract

The “All about Blueberries” Community of Practice is adapting the best existing extension publications and developing new research-based extension recommendations related to blueberry production and consumption. Our primary goal is to increase blueberry productivity and consumption of blueberries, initially in the southeast and then nationwide. The experts that are members of our Community of Practice are located in the southeastern United States (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina) where both southern highbush and rabbiteye blueberries are grown. Southern states with relatively small blueberry industries and insufficient funds to support active land-grant research and extension programs (Louisiana and Alabama) are benefiting from cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture, Mississippi State University, and North Carolina State University that have well-developed, robust research/extension programs that support the blueberry industry.

Keywords:

• extension
• community of practice
• social networking
• online resources
• multi-state
• multi-disciplinary

INTRODUCTION

Extension and Research faculty in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi have recently begun encountering new disease and insect problems in southeastern blueberry production. This includes the sharpshooter/bacterial leaf scorch insect/disease complex (http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/C922/C922.htm). As faculty communicated via phone and e-mail to develop solutions to these problems, we came to realize that there is a significant lack of Extension and Research staff support for blueberry production in many southeastern states (Alabama and Louisiana, in particular). This lack of funding and staff support causes us to look for support from nearby states (Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina).

We concluded that establishment of an extension Community of Practice (CoP) would allow us to join with others in a national initiative to reduce redundant production of educational materials and direct our stakeholders (in this case, producers and consumers of blueberries) to a common source of research-based extension educational tools. We submitted a proposal to develop a blueberry CoP to the FY 2010 SCRI RFA, and our proposal was selected for funding. Content is being developed using diverse, novel educational methods, including online-interactive training modules (Moodle based), audio and video podcasts, YouTube-type video content, interactive maps, animation, and connection with social networking tools (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and blogs). Our topics and educational goals are addressing the second through fifth SCRI federally mandated priority areas by educating our audience in a variety of topics as detailed in “Materials and Methods.” Our CoP website will make a connection between production and marketing by delivering exciting, engaging content for both producers and consumers of blueberries. Our goal is for our CoP to become a primary, trusted resource for information about blueberry production and consumption in the southeastern U.S. and, ultimately, the entire U.S. Furthermore, blueberry producers will benefit from educational resources to improve production efficiency and marketing of their product. Consumers will benefit from being able to locate local markets to purchase blueberries and gather and exchange information at the CoP webpage and complementary Facebook Fan page. Society will benefit by engaging youth in educational programs (4-H, young master gardeners). The natural environment also will benefit in two primary ways: (1) decreased fuel consumption in the process of marketing and consuming blueberries by linking consumers with local producers, and increasing local consumption of blueberries; and (2) improved accuracy of pest identification and thereby decreased improper application of pesticides at the home and farm. Thus, our project addresses a number of economic and environmental concerns.

In the process of developing our proposal, we sought the guidance of blueberry growers, Master Gardener Coordinators, and farmers' market coordinators. Letters of support were obtained from Blueberry Grower Associations (GulfSouth Blueberry Growers Association [MS], Wiregrass Blueberry Growers Association, Inc. [AL]), State Agricultural Agencies (Alabama Department of Agriculture and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry), Farmers' markets (The Big River Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance), and Master Gardener Associations/Programs (Louisiana Master Gardeners™, Alabama Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners Association). An advisory committee was established that includes blueberry producers, farmers' market representatives, county agents, Extension specialists, scientists (USDA and LGU), and Master Gardeners. The team of experts meets with Advisory board members annually for feedback and suggestions for future work. We have also communicated with participants from the University of Georgia Plant Pathology Department on the recently funded SCRI proposal, Advancing Blueberry Production Efficiency by Enabling Mechanical Harvest, Improving Fruit Quality and Safety, and Managing Emerging Diseases (PD: H. Scherm), that focuses on blueberry production. Some of the participants on Scherm's project are serving either as experts or advisory board members in our CoP. We plan to cross-list some of the excellent extension tools that are developed from their blueberry research programs.

Trends in the Southern Blueberry Industry

The recent growth of the blueberry industry has dictated that outreach activities be coordinated as much as possible, to avoid duplication and get information widely disseminated to large and small growers alike. Blueberry acreage in the United States has increased 70% in the past 12 years from 50,000 acres of blueberries in 1995 to 85,500 acres in 2007. Currently, the distribution of blueberries acreage in the United States, by region, is: Western—36%, Northeast—12%, Southern—26%, and Midwestern—26% (NABC, 2007). The south is a major player in the national blueberry industry. Southern growers realize acreage is increasing and production has increased substantially. The market is becoming very competitive and only the most efficient growers will be successful in today's marketplace. Growers are evaluating traditional blueberry varieties and new releases in their fields. New plantings are being established with the new early rabbiteye and southern highbush varieties. Growers are embracing new technology to develop efficient cultural practices and they are using the newest methods to establish new plantings to achieve the quickest growth, earliest production, and highest yields. It is imperative that growers achieve optimum yields to compete in today's marketplace. It was pointed out at a recent Gulf South Blueberry Growers Association meeting that a number of growers in the Gulf South area are achieving only 2,500 to 3,000 lbs per acre. Efficient growers in the same area achieve 10,000 to 12,000 lbs per acre annually. It is important that the growers with low yields bring their production levels up or they will go out of business. The demographics of blueberry growers are also changing in the direction of younger growers that are more likely to use new technology to improve their production practices. These young growers are actively participating in meetings, conventions, and workshops. Part of this is due to a shift from urban dwelling to rural living and young people looking for ways to make their land productive. Communication with the growers has moved from postal letters to email. The growers have requested that publications and information be delivered on-line rather than traditional printed publications. The Cooperative Extension Service has begun to put information on-line but the young grower is ahead of the game and is searching for information that is not available (Braswell, 2007).

Worldwide production of blueberries has increased by 152% since 1995 (Brazelton, 2008). Acreage in South America has increased 1,246%, acreage in Europe has increased 325%, acreage in the United States has increased 70%, and Asia has seen a 23% increase in acreage. The three regions with the most blueberry-producing acreage are North America (60%), South America (23%), and Europe (11%).

Acreage in South America is experiencing rapid growth. This will provide a steady supply of blueberries for the United States during the winter months, which is the off-season for domestic production. This will not hurt the United States fresh market because it is not competing head to head with the United States blueberry industry. Blueberry acreage in South America has increased 1,246% since 1995. Established regions worldwide are planting improved blueberry varieties to increase productivity, fruit quality, and harvest timing and gain other advantages in the marketplace. New southern highbush varieties offer the opportunity to produce fruit as much as 30 days earlier than traditional varieties and southeastern growers are evaluating these varieties and incorporating them into their plantings. There is also a strong effort to pack a larger percentage of the crop as fresh fruit and less of the crop as processed grade fruit. New technologies in harvesting and grading methods are being investigated and developed. Total U.S. blueberry production in 2007 was 171 million pounds of fresh berries and 186 million pounds of processed grade berries. This has increased from 250 million pounds in 2003 to 357 million pounds in 2007. Imports of berries during the winter from South America have increased from 3 million pounds in 1998 to 50 million pounds in 2007.

Consumer Demand

Per capita consumption of blueberries has increased steadily in the U.S. Reports of health benefits and nutriceutical properties of blueberries have increased the demand. In 2006, fresh blueberry consumption by Americans was almost 9 oz/person, substantially up from 1980 when average consumption was only 2.8 oz per capita (Prior et al., 2003). Most of this increase has been in the fresh market with a doubling in fresh consumption from 1994/1995 to 2004/2005 from 4.3 ounces per person to 8.7 ounces (USHBC, 2006). The Packer sponsors annual consumer studies about buying habits and consumption of various fruits and vegetables (USHBC, 2009). The survey found that blueberry purchases increased in 2008 over 2007. Fruit purchasing data revealed that 70% of American consumers purchased strawberries, 45% purchased blueberries, 31% purchased raspberries, and 22% purchased blackberries. Consumption data by region revealed 58% of consumers in the Northeast, 47% in the Midwest, 42% in the West, and 39% of Southern consumers purchased blueberries. The study also revealed that 26% of consumers purchased organically grown blueberries in 2008, which is up 5% in 2007 (USHBC, 2009). Another survey on consumer acceptance and willingness to pay for blueberries found that locally-grown labels received the most support and being organic made blueberries attractive to some consumers (Hu et al., 2008).

According to Tony Glover, Auburn University Regional Extension Agent, Birmingham Metro Area:

Backyard fruit production has become increasingly popular. The health benefits of blueberries, along with their compatibility with small landscapes, has made them one of the most popular edible landscape fruit choices. Blueberry questions coming through our Master Gardener help lines demonstrate this dramatic rise in popularity. Specific training and eXtension resources on blueberry growing would be a useful advanced component to Master Gardener help line worker training.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Many blueberry-related extension publications have already been developed and posted online. These are particularly concentrated at Michigan State University, Oregon State University, and also through the Southern Region Small Fruits Consortium. Preliminary websites developed by our CoP includes information already posted online that will be adapted (with proper permission) for inclusion in the “All about Blueberries” CoP. While preparing this proposal, we queried the Communication Directors throughout the southeast for a list of extension publications related to blueberry production and consumption. We have studied the materials in this list for appropriate content to cross-link on our webpage to supplement the novel content we are developing for our CoP. Michigan State University has developed excellent resources for home and commercial blueberry production. The topics that are covered in web-pages and fact sheets include commercial production of Highbush blueberries (fertilization, spray schedules, cold temperature effects on flowering, cultivar suggestions, market reports, post-harvest cooling and handling, pests, and diseases). On the west coast, Oregon State has developed the Northwest Berry and Grape Network.

Definition of Our Community of Practice

Our CoP “All about Blueberries” will be developed by a team of experts with knowledge of blueberry production and management, horticulture, pest management, disease management, human nutrition, economics, marketing, extension program evaluation, computer design, communications, and graphic design. As a team, we are developing novel educational content including YouTube-type video content, audio and video podcasts, interactive maps, Moodle courses, online interactive diagrams, in addition to traditional text and photo webpages. These materials are being developed to increase the knowledge level of our CoI.

Definition of Our Community of Interest (CoI)

Our CoI is broadly defined as producers (commercial and backyard), distributors, and consumers of blueberries (youth and adult). In addition to our CoP eXtension webpage, we have created a Facebook Fan page, Twitter feed, and blog. These social networking tools allow us to engage our CoI in discussions about blueberry production and consumption. Through Facebook, our CoI can post unique content. This has created an interactive relationship between the CoP Experts and the CoI and also between different members of our CoI.

Our CoP is developing content in four topic areas (Fig. 1).

FIGURE 1 Diagram of the four primary topic areas in the “All about Blueberries” community of practice (color figure available online).

1.	The Blueberry—Information about varieties, growing zones, plant anatomy, and pollination.
2.	Growers—Guidance for both backyard and commercial, conventional, and organic producers.
3.	Consumers—Nutritional benefits, where to buy locally, and how to prepare blueberries.
4.	4-H/Youth—Interactive/educational materials about blueberries that will be attractive to youth and could be utilized in 4-H and/or young master gardener programs.

As we started to create content, we found overlap in Topics 1 and 2, so they have since been merged into one topic—production.

Community of Practice—Leadership Plan

The overall project leader is PD Hummel. A leader has been assigned to each topic area (Fig. 2). Within each of the four topic areas, a sub-committee (Topic contributors) has been developed that will assist the topic leader in developing material. A time-line has been established for developing content within identified sub-topics within each topic area. The topic leaders communicate with the project leader (PD Hummel) who is supervising the work of the Project Coordinator (A. Denise Attaway). Attaway was hired as Project Coordinator to direct the development of educational materials and administer both the eXtension CoP and the complementary Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress blog pages. Support personnel (Graphic Designer, Programmer, Web Content Coordinator, Video Specialist, Broadcast Specialist, and Graphic Design Specialist) are assisting the CoP content Experts in the design and development of video and audio content and specific web-enabled tools (e.g., interactive diagrams and graphics for Moodle courses). PD Matchmes is leading the 4-H/Youth topic area and developing evaluation tools for all topic areas within the proposal.

FIGURE 2 Leadership plan for coordinating development of educational materials (color figure available online).

Project leaders meet via web-conference once a month. Each of the topic leaders also communicates with their sub-topic contributors as necessary to coordinate development of content according to the proposed production timeline. Additionally, the CoP Experts meets with the Advisory Committee in person once per year.

We used a systems approach when assembling our team of Extension and Research faculty by drawing experts from a wide range of disciplines including the following: Ag Economics, Agronomy, Entomology, Evaluation, Horticulture, Human Nutrition, Plant Breeding, and Plant Pathology. Our CoP Experts are predominately from the southeastern U.S. for the following reasons: (1) rabbit-eye blueberry varieties predominate in this region and there is a shortage of extension educational material in this subject area, (2) we have been drawn together to address a pest/disease complex that has recently been detected in southern blueberries (Bacterial leaf scorch caused by Xylella fastidiosa that is vectored by sharpshooters), and (3) Alabama and Louisiana will greatly benefit from expertise that is available in Mississippi and North Carolina. Our goal is to join together in this effort to provide extension educational materials for historically under-served blueberry producers in Alabama and Louisiana.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

We are nearing the end of our first year of funding. Social networking tools were created in January 2010 to generate interest for our group on the internet. We launched a blog using www.wordpress.com, which is used to post news accessed through a Google alert for the blueberry topic. We launched a Facebook fan page in January 2010. We currently have about 170 fans. Fans are individuals who have subscribed to our page to receive updates. This indicates a high degree of interest in the content we are posting. The Facebook information is fed to a twitter feed, which informs twitter followers about new content. When our CoP website is launched on www.extension.org we will post links to the content on Facebook, Twitter, and a WordPress blog.

We are now creating www.extension.org websites that will be hosted in our All about Blueberries CoP. Websites will be published for view by the public in August 2010. The topic teams have worked together to achieve the goals for year one of our project. This has resulted in creation of approximately 250 web pages, which are posted using a wiki content management system (CMS) that is maintained by www.extension.org. Articles were team-authored using the Google Knol system, where collaborative writing can be easily organized. Some of the website topics include cultivation, planting site selection, fertilization, pollination, insects and diseases, integrated pest management, harvest methods, soil testing methods, weed management, nutritional benefits, recipes, and many others. We also have created instructional videos on how to take a soil test, how to plant blueberries in pots and the effects of pests on blueberry plants. More videos are being in production and editing stages. Additionally, we are creating Moodle courses on the blueberry topic. These self-paced interactive courses are taught by Experts and will be offered online through our All About Blueberries university partnership. Participants can learn about blueberry cultivation by completing these online courses.

The team of experts has been able to accomplish this cooperative work by meeting via web conference (Adobe Connect) on regularly scheduled intervals. Cooperative writing has been coordinated by Project Coordinator Attaway. This was rapidly facilitated using the Google Knol system online. All of the online tools utilized are free to use, which has offered tremendous cost savings.

CONCLUSIONS

Our plan is to launch the All about Blueberries Community of Practice website at www.extension.org in August 2010. The funding for this project will continue through August 2012. In years two and three we will continue to build content as outlined in our project proposal. In particular, this will include creation of an interactive blueberry industry map for use by growers and consumers of blueberries. We will also expand our offering of online Moodle courses. Additionally, we will create online interactive identification keys to blueberry insects and diseases.

We currently are recruiting experts from across the U.S. to cooperate in development of new content. If you are interested in joining our team, please contact us by e-mail or sign up at about.extension.org. In order to grow our team, we need authors and editors of content from a variety of disciplines. We hope that this information will be widely used by the general public, and that connection with social networking tools will enhance our ability to engage with our Community of Interest online.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This project is supported in part by USDA award number 2009–51181–06093.