Catawba County Farmers Market

Welcome to the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, the largest outreach program at North Carolina State University. Based in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, we reach millions of North Carolina citizens each year through local centers in the state’s 100 counties and with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Cooperative Extension is a partnership that began here in 1914 when county, state and federal governments agreed that by joining together they could provide all citizens with access to the wealth of knowledge generated by public universities. Today that partnership includes county governments working to solve local problems, a national network of land-grant universities including NC State and NC A&T State University, and the US Department of Agriculture working together, we recognize that we achieve much more than we can alone. Nationally, Cooperative Extension provides educational programming in five key areas: sustaining agriculture and forestry protecting the environment maintaining viable communities developing responsible youth developing strong, healthy and safe families In our county centers across the state, county agents are the bridge between the state’s people and Extension specialists working at the state’s land-grant universities. Agents educate the public through meetings and workshops, field days, personal consultations, web- and videoconferencing. They also provide publications, newsletters, social media interaction, videos and other educational materials. We hope this Web site will provide more information on the myriad programs offered by Cooperative Extension and how we are working to serve you.