Agriculture Research and Co-ops

MCNC announced in August 2019 the expansion of its statewide network in Southeast North Carolina by connecting communities between Sanford and Farmville to broadband infrastructure enabled by a Golden LEAF Foundation grant.

In this grant, MCNC emphasized agriculture connectivity and worked with NC State University to connect cooperative extension offices along the route as well as the Cherry Research Farm in Goldsboro, which is the site for the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) – a joint effort between the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and NC State University – to focus on sustainable agriculture technologies.

Today, MCNC reaches into rural communities and helps to close the agricultural connectivity divide by serving nearly thirty Agricultural Research and Co-op institutions. Access to MCNC’s network, NCREN, enables farmers to quickly access weather information, commodity markets, crop production techniques, disease and crop health, communication with customers and suppliers, data analysis, and environmental sustainable methods. Farmers are experiencing a technology revolution and MCNC is working with organizations to support the growers of North Carolina.