Fields Lays Out Vision For Division Of Agriculture To Members Of Legislative Agriculture Committees

MARY HIGHTOWER 

FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS

Deacue Fields, head of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, didn’t mince words when he told members of the state House and Senate agriculture committees what his vision was for his organization. 

 “We have the pieces in place to be the top agriculture institution in our region,” he said.

The members of the House and Senate Committees on Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development met Oct. 11 at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences, the headquarters for the Division of Agriculture’s research arm, the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. 

Their agenda for the second of their two-day meeting was hearing from Fields about the Division of Agriculture and an update on the Illinois River Watershed Partnership from Rep. Delia Haak and Leif Kindberg, the partnership’s executive director.

 Fields said in talking with a faculty member comparing Arkansas’ program in a particular research area to another university’s, he was told, “They have a great program and we may be slightly behind them right now,” adding that at present, “I think we are in a position where we're about to take off.”  

 Fields said the effort to get to the top comes at a cost. 

 “Since I've been here, we've hired about 30 plus new faculty,” he said. “I can't be more excited about the faculty that we've hired and the level of innovation that they bring to us and you and the view that they have of the world.” 

 However, to be able to add those faculty members meant having to cut back in other areas. 

“Early on we took a look at where we were, and even with that 1,200 employees, we are probably the institution that gave the largest number of positions back to the state,” he said, “We gave 422 positions back to the state last session.”

He also noted that the building in which the legislators were meeting was the result of 11 years of savings, plus support from industry. 

Fields told lawmakers that their appropriations to the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture is “invested in a research and development arm of an innovation delivery system, that is also a human resource development system for Arkansas’ largest industry.”

He encouraged lawmakers to consider additional funding since the Division of Agriculture doesn’t have student tuition for revenue. What funding it receives supports faculty on three campuses, including 11 at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, and must also keep its research facilities updated to support continued innovation. ∆

MARY HIGHTOWER: University of Arkansas