|
Source: USDA, 11/8/21
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) announced today it is awarding $25 million to conservation
partners across the country for 18 new projects under the Conservation
Innovation Grants (CIG) On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials program.On-Farm Trials projects support widespread adoption and evaluation of innovative conservation approaches in partnership with agricultural producers. This year’s awarded projects increase the adoption of new approaches and technologies to help agricultural producers mitigate the effects of climate change, increase the resilience of their operations and boost soil health. “Farmers, ranchers and forest landowners play a crucial role in charting the course towards a climate-smart future,” said Terry Cosby, Chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). “On-Farm Trials enable partners to work with producers to test and adopt new climate-smart systems on their operations that support agricultural production and conserve natural resources, while also building climate resilience.” Awarded Projects:
- Climate-smart Irrigation
for Drought, Fertility, and Structural Resilience in Almond Systems
(California) University of California, Davis
will incentivize almond growers to adopt deep root irrigation, pressure
compensated subsurface drip irrigation and Hybrid Pb.
- Decision Support System
for Irrigation with Limited Water (California, Oregon) Irrigation for the Future will
demonstrate an advanced decision support system designed to calculate the
productivity of water and optimize the economics of irrigation management
field-by-field.
- Regional LoRa Networks
to Improve High Elevation Flood Irrigation Water Management (Colorado) Trout Unlimited will work within Colorado’s Gunnison River and Rio Grande basins, working with eight producers to deploy the use of Long-Range Low Power Area Networks (LoRa) to improve wild flood and furrow irrigation water management on irrigated mountain valleys above 5,500 feet elevation.
- Converting Wasteful,
Flood-Irrigated Fields to Low-Cost, Gravity-Powered Drip Irrigation with
Decision-Support Technology: A Water-Smart, Enhanced Crop Yield
Agriculture Solution for Colorado River Indian Tribes and Other Producers
(Arizona) N-Drip will work with
approximately 20 producers of the Colorado River Indian Tribes to
implement a drip irrigation system on flood irrigated fields.
- Beyond Yield: A
Comprehensive Evaluation of Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers for Reducing
Nitrous Oxide Emissions and Ammonia Volatilization in Corn Systems (North
Carolina) North Carolina State University will
provide critical information on the efficacy of reducing nitrogen and
using inhibitors on emissions and corn yield in the low soil carbon, hot
and humid conditions of the southeast.
- Trialing Dietary
Interventions to Mitigate Enteric Methane Emissions in Dairy Cattle
(Michigan, Wisconsin) The
Nature Conservancy will evaluate different dairy feed
management strategies, including emerging feed additives. The goal of the
project is to better inform greenhouse gas mitigation strategies for
cattle, NRCS programs and the development of protocols for measuring
enteric emissions.
- Regenerative Egg Farming
Project (Kentucky) Handsome
Brook Farm will support five beginning farmers in
adopting climate-smart regenerative egg practices. This on-farm trial will
establish on-farm manure management, storage and distribution systems
designed to reduce GHG emissions, and reduce on-farm soil erosion and
drastically reduce watershed pollution through pasture enhancements and
investments in housing infrastructure.
- Stacking Climate-Smart
Agriculture and Pollinator Conservation to Leverage Market-Based
Incentives (California, Maine, Montana, Oregon, Washington) Xerces Society will
demonstrate, evaluate, and quantify conservation practices designed to
maximize the dual goals of climate-smart agriculture and pollinator
conservation at the farm level
- Reimagining Modern Crop
Fields: Delivering Economic, Environmental, and Societal Benefits through
Increased Adoption of Precision Conservation (Iowa, Minnesota) Pheasants Forever will
explore a financial assistance model that promotes the adoption of
precision agriculture and precision conservation strategies and tools on a
farm-wide scale to identify opportunities for conservation and inform
decision-making.
- Inland Northwest Farmers
Leading Our United Revolution in Soil Health (FLOURISH) (Washington,
Idaho, Oregon) Palouse
Conservation District will work with crop producers of the inland Pacific Northwest to demonstrate farming practices that build soil health and increase the resilience of dryland cropping systems. The overall goal of this project is to support widespread adoption of soil health management systems −specifically cover cropping, interseeding and cover crop-livestock integration.
- Addressing Barriers for Historically Underserved Producers in California’s San Joaquin Valley to Implement Combined Soil Health Practices through Participatory Planning and Evaluation on Diversified Farms (California) The Regents of the University of
California will address barriers faced by small-scale
historically underserved producers to adopt soil health practices and
systems. The project will build flexibility for producers to adapt
practices to the unique circumstances of their operations and to test the
performance of various practice combinations.
- Bale Grazing: A
Practical, Low-Cost, and Environmentally-Sound Management Strategy to
Winter Beef Cattle (Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, New York,
Virginia, West Virginia) The
University of Kentucky Research Foundation will increase
adoption of bale grazing to improve winter feed management for beef cattle
farmers by demonstrating the practical, economic and ecological benefits
of this strategy.
- Utah Soil Health
Partnership: Utah Soil Health Network (Utah) Many of Utah’s dryland producers still practice summer fallow with frequent full width tillage through the fallow period. The Utah Association of Conservation Districts will
increase the adoption of soil health practices in Utah with this on-farm
trial focused on diverse farming systems.
- Grazing for Soil Health
(Montana) Piikani Lodge Health Institute will
work with Tribal Nations to support greater adoption and implementation of
regenerative grazing practices on rangelands and irrigated pastures.
- Diversifying Appalachia’s Pastures to Improve Soil Health (West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania) WVU
Research Corporation will promote and evaluate pasture
diversification through reseeding as an innovative conservation strategy.
- A Colorado Soil Health
Program: Supporting Producers and Conservation Districts to Improve
Drought Resilience and Water Utilization (Colorado) The Colorado Department of Agriculture will
encourage the widespread adoption of soil health practices to achieve
water quality, water conservation and on-farm economic benefits.
- Promoting Climate-Smart
Agricultural Practices Among Underserved Small-Scale farmers in Arizona
using Farmer Participatory Research (Arizona) This
on-farm demonstration trial will promote climate-smart and soil health agricultural
practices among small-scale farmers. The University of Arizona and collaborating
farmers will use farmer participatory research to promote climate-smart
agricultural and soil health management systems.
- From Farmers to Soil
Health Managers - Participatory Design of On-Farm Trials to Stimulate
Adoption of Innovative Conservation Techniques by Historically Underserved
Farmers in the Puget Sound Region (Washington) Grow Food will engage
historically underserved farmers to conduct trials of innovative Soil
Health Management Systems techniques and demonstrate the benefits of
adoption through environmental, social and economic evaluation of the
on-farm trials.
For details on the awarded projects, visit the NRCS website.
|