Dr. Jehangir “Jango” Bhadha received a 2020 Seymour Goldweber Extension Professional and Enhancement Award. Bhadha is an assistant professor of Soil, Water, and Nutrient Management in the UF/IFAS Soil and Water Sciences Department. He conducts his work at the Everglades Research and Education Center. The award was announced at that annual Extension Professional Association of Florida conference.
The Seymour Goldweber Award provides a term professorship to outstanding state or county Extension faculty members. Recipients have developed an educational program that contributes to making the Florida Extension Service the best in the nation. Candidates for the award must have national recognition from a professional organization or society.
Dr. Bhadha has developed a highly visible extension program towards the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. He does this by using integrated soil, water, and nutrient management strategies within the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) of South Florida, and beyond. Dr. Bhadha uses one-on-one interaction, group learning sessions, in-service trainings, creative works, and social media. His clientele farm the 400,000+ acres of the EAA and those who consume the region’s products.
Outreach & Education
Beyond interacting with hundreds of growers at meetings, field trips, and field tours to help them improve soil and environmental quality, Dr. Bhadha also works with local UF/IFAS Extension agents across counties in South Florida. Together, they provide new multi-disciplinary lessons needed to continue to farm this huge region of southern Florida. Public events, such as the annual South Florida Fair and the Historical Society of Palm Beach County Annual Scarecrow Festival, are some of the venues you can find him in a booth. He and his students discuss the impact of cover-crops or how to initiate a backyard compost pile.
Over the past five years, Dr. Bhadha has created numerous instructional multimedia presentations, conducted field tours, delivered webinars, and responded to requests from news/media organizations. Dr. Bhadha is a Fulbright Specialist, he serves on the National Extension Professional Honor Society – Global Relations Committee, and the Florida Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Advisory Council to plan a five-year strategic road-map.
You can reach Dr. Bhadha at jango@ufl.edu or connect with him on Twitter @UFSustainableAg.
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