Success StoryStakeholder education via pawpaw field days
Stakeholder education via pawpaw field days
Author: Sheri Crabtree
Planning Unit: KSU Administration
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Outcome: Initial Outcome
Pawpaw is increasing in popularity as a niche crop for small farmers and fruit growers in Kentucky. The 2022 Ag Census reported over 90 pawpaw growers in the state of Kentucky. To meet the growing needs of pawpaw producers, Kentucky State University’s Pawpaw Research and Extension Program conducted a Third Thursday Thing pawpaw workshop in September 2024. Over 170 people attended and learned about topics including pawpaw planting and cultivars, pests and diseases, propagation, and pawpaws around the world. The workshop included hands-on activities such as orchard tours and a fruit and product tasting, and a grower roundtable for commercial pawpaw growers to learn from one another. The Third Thursday Thing pawpaw workshop was live streamed and videos posted on Facebook in order to reach stakeholders who cannot travel to Frankfort to attend in person, reaching another 4,800 people virtually. Workshops were also conducted at the Louisville Pawpaw Festival in Louisville, KY on September 7, 2024, attended by several hundred people, on the topics of pawpaw planting and cultivar selection, propagation, foraging and forest production, pests and diseases, and processing and value-added products, along with a tree grafting demonstration, and fruit and product tastings. These workshops enabled us to reach stakeholders in different areas of the state, in urban and rural settings, and virtually for those not able to attend in-person to provide education on growing and utilizing pawpaw fruit.
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