An administrative decision followed to proceed with a survey of farms. Vice President Kenneth Tefertiller named Hildebrand as coordinator of the IFAS farming systems program in December, 1980, and appointed an administrative coordinating committee and a technical advisory committee: The former consisted of the deans for extension, research and resident instruction, and the latter of departmental chairpersons, headed
by Chris Andrew. At this time, James Dean and Georce Clough were hired as core team members on USDA funds. A Pre-Sondeo was then conducted in a six county area of north Florida, after a decision to move the project out of Alachua County was made. Before the survey, a meeting was held in iv iC with extension agents to familiarize them with the procedure and purposes of the survey. The counties surveyed included Jefferson, Hamilton, Union, Madison, Suwannee and Columbia. Because of the proximity of the latter two and prevalance of small farms there, they were selected to be the sites of an intensive Sondeo.
The Sondeo was conducted between June 18-July 27, 1981.
Approximately four 2-person teams averaged 3 days a week in the field surveying farms; a total of 66 intarvims wmre c hted (Fig. 2) By July 29, a classification system of the farm households was completed, and major problems and constraints faced by them identified (see next section). It was September 1, 1981 when the team received word that the project would be funded by the State. Two weeks later, the FSR/E team produced its final Sondeo Recort on Suwannee and Columbia County farming systems. The groundwork was laid to begin developing and testing alternative technologies for the identified clientele.
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Figure 2. Map of Norh Florida FSR/ Research Area.
Pigse 2. Map of North Florida FSR/E Research Area.