TIFTON — The University of Georgia has been implementing numerous renovations to its Tifton campus to ensure the 100-year-old university continues to prosper through the next hundred years.

The heads of the campus have been upgrading the facilities, faculty and technology during the past few years to meet the needs of modern agricultural research in South Georgia and are expected to continue their work into the coming years.

“The Tifton campus is important to the future of agriculture in South Georgia,” said Michael Toews, assistant dean for the Tifton campus’ College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “We’re putting the infrastructure in place that will support the types of innovations that will power Georgia agriculture going forward.”

More than $5.7 million has been poured into the project, funding expansions to faculty and the graduate student body, advancements in the campus IT and water infrastructure, and a campaign to improve the energy efficiency of the campus buildings.

Sixty-four graduate student office workstations, as well as 10 fully outfitted greenhouses, have already been created, according to Toews, with the university developing its new IT systems and enhancing the water system to better supply the campus’ labs, greenhouses and field spaces across the past summer season.

Plans are also underway to create a Precision Ag Lab for university growers to learn about new technologies in specialty crops and a new greenhouse to provide more support to the vegetable and blueberry breeder positions.

Toews said while the renovations are intended to upgrade the school and carry it into and potentially through its second century, he hopes the improvements will attract top-notch faculty and grad students to help enhance the university even more.

“Any time we can get the sharpest minds here,” Toews said. “That’s a win for Georgia agriculture.”