For openers.

Hearty congratulations to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) on the establishment of its new "Professional Program in Plant Health" curriculum!

Whereas the livestock industry has the Dr. of Veterinary Medicine, which pulls together all aspects of animal health and productivity, UNL's new curriculum will graduate students experienced in all phases of crops production.

Heading UNL's program is Gary Hein. He says, "The program will be different from other graduate programs in that it will train practitioners, rather than researchers. Students will be broadly educated in areas of entomology, agronomy, horticulture, plant pathology, soil science and other crop production disciplines."

The program, which requires an undergraduate degree, will take three to four years to complete and will prepare students for a variety of employers and jobs, including the crop input industry (both for manufacturers and retailers), crop consulting, extension and state and federal governmental agencies (USDA, EPA, etc.).

The agricultural industry was instrumental in the development of the new curriculum. The concept was first introduced to UNL officials by representatives of the National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultant's (NAICC) Foundation a few years ago. Bolstered by additional funding by BASF, Syngenta and DuPont, NAICC provided UNL with the initial seed money that was needed to investigate and develop the curriculum.

The UNL curriculum is modeled after the highly successful "Dr. of Plant Medicine" (DPM) which has been offered at the University of Florida (UF) for the past decade. That program has placed students in ten countries, as well as Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Agribusiness is encouraged to get involved in both of the programs. Internships, scholarships, making jobs available for grads are all available. Both programs, of course, accept other types of financial assistance.

UNL's Hein can be contacted at: [e-mail].

UF's Dr. Robert McGovern can be contacted at: [e-mail].