Auburn, Aug. 31---Dr. James Novak, Alabama Cooperative Extension economist and Auburn University professor of agricultural economics, has received the 2001 Distinguished Extension Program Group Award from the American Agricultural Economics Association.

As Southeast coordinator for Risk Management Education, Novak was one of 6 agricultural economists throughout the nation to receive the award. He and the other award recipients were recognized for the critical role they played in establishing the National Risk Management Education program.

The program, aimed at providing farmers and ranchers throughout the United States with risk management education, was made possible by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Novak and other team members helped secure $5,000 grants for each participating land-grant university so they could provide risk-management training in their states. Their efforts are credited with helping land-grant universities throughout the nation provide more than 1,250 risk-management conferences and workshops on behalf of agricultural producers and their families.

In addition to conferences and similar outreach efforts, team members also produced a wide array of printed and electronic publications for producers and producer-related organizations. A few of these have been published in both English and Spanish.

Between 1998 and 1999, the team's educational outreach efforts involved more than 40,000 agricultural leaders and producers nationwide.

While risk management-related issues typically are associated with yield loss and crop insurance, team members produced educational materials touching every aspect of farm-related risk.

"Risk-management efforts encompass farm production, family issues, and financial and legal risks," Novak says. "One of our main goals was to tie all of these into a comprehensive program that reached not only producers but their families as well."

One of the team's most notable achievements is its work with the National Agricultural Library, which has now become the repository for all risk-management educational publications.

Since the repository was established, more than 248,000 hits were logged on the National Agricultural Library Web site.

Team efforts culminated in the "Extension Risk Management Education Workshop," held in June 2000 in St. Louis. Approximately 170 key Extension, government and private sector partners involved in nationwide risk-management efforts attended the workshop.

In 1999, the team was also credited with reversing a congressional decision to end funding for risk-management education. Congress even included a statement in the Conference Report to the Agricultural Appropriations Bill praising the "critical role" risk management programs and similar efforts have played in helping producers and their families through the current farm crisis.

As a result of the team's efforts, the Agricultural Risk Protection Act, signed into law by President Clinton June 20, 2000, provides $5 million each year for the next five years to the CSREES to providing risk-management education for agricultural producers and their families.