Potato Conference & WSDA Community Liaison

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

The 2014 Washington Oregon Potato Conference and Trade Show will be January 28 through the 30th at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick, and will mark the 5th year that Washington and Oregon have teamed up to host the conference together. Just a few of the topics to be covered during general sessions include bioproducts for soil building, the future of potato breeding, improving land use efficiency in the Columbia Basin, insecticide resistance, and managing powdery scab and common scab.  For a complete schedule or more information visit www.potatoconference.com.

When Bud Hover was appointed Director of the WSDA in April one thing he noted was the need for an agency representative who would meet with growers throughout the state to communicate with them about the issues they face. Thus he appointed Ignacio Marquez, former WorkSource area director with Employment Security in Yakima, as the department's new Community Liaison. We caught up with Marquez at the recent Hort Convention in Wenatchee and he spoke about his appointment.

MARQUEZ: My experience has been with the labor side - understanding not only the workforce itself but also understanding the challenges that the tree fruit industry faces as far as getting enough workers. So it was a good match. On top of that Bud is really wanting to do a better job of connecting with the workforce - with the spanish speaking workforce, and also the number of small farmers that are spanish speaking that are coming into this industry - really trying to figure out what is it that the agency can do to assist them in their dreams of expanding their small orchards and farms.

Tomorrow Marquez will talk about some of the challenges he faces as the WSDA's new Community Liaison.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.