Auburn University researchers and Alabama Extension specialists are taking their expertise from labs and small experimental plots to Alabama farmers’ fields with a $4 million grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The grant aims to increase producers’ adoption of efficient crop management practices.
The five-year study will include on-farm trials located in seven counties in Alabama: Lawrence, Cherokee, Marshall, Lee, Pike, Geneva and Houston. These trials will be established to demonstrate a systems approach to input-use efficiency crop management.
“Although this project will include several crop management practices intended to strengthen environmental sustainability, this time we will be demonstrating them as a bundle to increase the adoption of site-specific management: the right rate and the right time, right place and the right source,” said Brenda Ortiz, professor and Alabama Extension specialist with the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences and project leader.
Smart nitrogen management practices demonstrated on the farms will include fertigation, the use of enhanced efficiency fertilizers, and tools for prediction of in-season nitrogen rates, as well as variable-rate nitrogen, water and seed, Ortiz said.
Researchers will also demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of varying the most expensive inputs in crop production according to the field variability. Demonstrations of irrigation scheduling tools and best herbicide management also will be included, in addition to social and economic studies of barriers to adoption of the practices demonstrated.
Eight farmers selected for the project will receive incentive payments for three years to offset potential yield impacts resulting from the practices demonstrated on their fields, Ortiz said.
Payments also support farmers acquiring technologies needed for implementation of the proposed practices. Farmers who receive these incentives must be EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) eligible. EQIP is the flagship conservation program of the NRCS.
The objectives of the project titled Increasing Farmers’ Adoption of Input Use Efficiency CROP Management Practices, a Step Towards a More Sustainable and Resilient Agriculture include evaluating and demonstrating a systems approach to crop management to make more efficient use of crop inputs while strengthening environmental sustainability and productivity.
The project also aims to evaluate the economic benefits of adopting a systems approach to increase input use efficiency across multiple farming scenarios in Alabama. Because numerous practices and technologies will be demonstrated, representatives from industry also will be collaborating in this project.
In addition, the project will work to demonstrate the use of sustainability indicators under the Field-to-Market platform to track improvements towards conservation and sustainability and promote farmers’ benchmarking.
Field-to-Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture brings together a diverse group of grower organizations; agribusinesses; food, feed, beverage, restaurant and retail companies; conservation groups; universities and public sector partners to focus on defining, measuring and advancing the sustainability of food, feed, fiber and fuel production.
“We also hope to establish a network of farmer-managed learning sites to increase adoption of a systems approach to input-use crop management,” Ortiz said. “Further, we will discover participating farmers’ awareness of a systems approach to crop management and specific best cropping practices and evaluate farmers’ changes in attitudes, constraints to adoption, increase or decrease in capacity, and willingness to adopt best management practices.”
The project also will evaluate and demonstrate the role of state and federal policies and programs focused on enhancing opportunities for the adoption of input-use efficiency practices in Alabama.
As part of this large multidisciplinary effort, a new initiative will allow farmers to evaluate various management practices on a single field and compete for the highest input use efficiency and highest net return.
This initiative is called Testing Agricultural Performance Solutions (TAPS) and was launched last year with seven teams of farmers competing on a field at the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station’s Farm Services Unit of the E. V. Smith Research Center in Shorter. TAPS is partially funded by the Alabama Wheat and Feed Grain Committee.
In addition to the eight farmers’ fields, demonstration studies also will be located at the E.V. Smith Research Center and the Wiregrass Research and Extension Center in Headland.
“The strategy of this project is to integrate the latest technology in precision applications and crop monitoring,” said Steve Hague, department head and professor of the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences. “A centerpiece of this approach is to have active communication with growers to evaluate and promote the best possible returns-on-investments.”
Other Auburn University faculty involved in the grant include Eros Francisco, assistant professor/extension grain crops agronomist, Department of Crop, Soil & Environmental Sciences; David Russell, associate extension professor, Department of Crop, Soil & Environmental Sciences; Adam Rabinowitz, associate professor and extension specialist, Department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology; Kelli Russell, assistant extension professor, Department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology; and Steve Brown, visiting professor. All research team members are also researchers with the Experiment Station.
Source : auburn.edu