Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO AT MAYAGUEZ
P. O. BOX 9000
MAYAGUEZ,PR 00681
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Hurricane Fiona had a devastating effect on Puerto Rican communities. Hurricanes can cause food supply chain interruptions affecting food security days and weeks after the event. Puerto Rican urban communities were particularly susceptible for food shortages due to their reliance on non-local or international food sources. Urban agriculture (home gardens, community gardens, small-scale agriculture, etc.) can represent an important partner for bolstering community resilience to these natural disasters.One of the major concerns for urban agriculture is soil contamination with heavy metals and organic contaminants that are known to be persistent in soils and can bioaccumulate. There is limited data available on the extent and distribution of urban soil contamination in Puerto Rico. In addition, urban farmers have limited information and resources for assessing levels of contaminants in urban soils and mitigating these toxic chemicals in their gardens.Our goal is to provide strategies and fill information gaps to protect the urban Puerto Rican communities from food shortage during and after hurricanes through the facilitation of urban garden development. We aim to promote urban agriculture through educational resources on strategies to mitigate exposure to soil contamination and conduct research to determine soil contamination in urban soils in Puerto Rico. Revitalizing urban farming in Puerto Rico by rehabilitating contaminated soils is a crucial first step on the path toward increasing food security in countries with high density populations and negative net imports like Puerto Rico.The aim of the project is to improve food security after extreme weather events in Puerto Rico by promoting urban agriculture through educational resources and conducting research to mitigate exposure to soil contaminants in urban soils. Three specific objectives will be addressed in the presented study:Objective 1: Promote home/community gardens and small scale agriculture in urban settings through creation of information hub and trainingsObjective 2: Develop safe farming practices based on contaminant mitigation studiesObjective 3: Rate the capacity of biochar for contaminated soil rehabilitationThe objectives will be accomplished through various inputs and activities. First, development of educational tools and resources will be used to promote urban agricultural practices. Available extension information on home and community gardens and small scale agriculture in urban settings will be organized in a user-friendly form that is easily accessible and utilizable for urban gardeners. Information gaps will be identified and technical notes will be produced to address these topics.Second, urban garden trainings will be provided the Agricultural Extension Service throughout Puerto Rico. To reach the greatest number of families in the shortest amount of time we will work with the Master Gardeners and 4-H programs in Puerto Rico to assist in the teaching and the implementation ofurban gardens. The Master Gardener program in Puerto Rico completed its first year in early 2020. To increase volunteer help in the implementation of urban home gardens, the Second Masters Gardeners training will be held early in the project year. As families with young children and seniors are at greatest risk for lack of food after a hurricane, home garden instruction will be focused on 4-H groups across the island. 4-H members will be encouraged to invite their families and friends to the training in their area. Lessons and lesson material will be tailored to the audience and will provide various gardening options appropriate for distinct living situations. Participants of the urban garden training will be provided with a starter gardening kit with selected materials to encourage the implementation of the home garden. Subsequent visits will help determine roadblocks that families have encountered in establishing their home gardens and what additional information and support is needed.Third, field plot demonstrations and field day tours will be provided to ensure hands-on experience and adoption of best management practices (BMP) with the use of biochar. Field day tours will be coordinated by extension specialists and educators including guided sampling activities, and application demonstrations.Lastly, lab and field experiments will be conducted to assess the capacity of biochar for the attenuation of contaminants from soil and evaluate the effect of biochar on soil health and crop production, respectively. Biochar locally produced from a range of feedstocks including coffee shrubs, coconut, and other wood biomass using a kiln will be rated based on their capacity to mitigate organic contaminants like PFAS (PFOS and PFOA) and inorganic contaminants (Cu, Cd, Pb, Li, Ni, Sb) in soils using batch soil sorption experiments. Field plot demonstration trials will be carried out at two sites (Agricultural Experimental Station Gurabo and Juana Diaz) to develop region specific farming practices and biochar application rates that can be implemented by urban growers. Specialty vegetables such as lettuce, tomato, sweet chili peppers will be grown. Plants will be evaluated for a range of properties to reflect the effect of biochar on plant health and crop performance.This project will improve food security in Puerto Rico by increasing the skills in urban agriculture in the local underserved population. It will provide a better quality of life for families in urban settings and will provide new fundamental knowledge on the use and application of biochar in urban agriculture.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Goal/objectivesOur goal is to provide strategies and fill information gaps to protect the urban Puerto Rican communities from food shortage during and after hurricanes through the facilitation of urban garden development. We aim to promote urban agriculture through educational resources on strategies to mitigate exposure to soil contamination and conduct research to determine soil contamination in urban soils in Puerto Rico. Revitalizing urban farming in Puerto Rico by rehabilitating contaminated soils is a crucial first step on the path toward increasing food security in countries with high density populations and negative net imports like Puerto Rico. Urban farming not only boosts sustainable food production in Puerto Rico, but also has a positive socio-economic effect in the form of community involvement, urban gardener training, and addresses equity issues in marginalized communities.In addition to rehabilitating urban soils, the reuse of solid organic wastes in the form of biochar conserves the embodied energy and supports sustainable food production, which is vital for sustainability of Puerto Rico's economy and import independence (McLellan et al. 2018). In fact, based on the recent emergy analysis of Puerto Rico, system sustainability has declined by 84% over the last 54 years since the agricultural-based economy began shifting to industrial manufacturing (González-Mejía and Ma 2017). As a result of the substantial decline in land use for agriculture, the island has become dependent on imported food with only 15% of food produced in Puerto Rico. Decreased production in combination with continual loss of productive farmland due to land degradation and soil erosion has raised concerns for food security on the island with nearly 40% of the population in Puerto Rico participating in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as compared to ~10% of mainlanders according to USDA.ApproachWe aim to improve food security after extreme weather events in Puerto Rico by promoting urban agriculture through educational resources and conducting research to mitigate exposure to soil contaminants in urban soils. Ourhypothesisis that agronomic use of biochar will provide a critical and accessible solution for rehabilitation of impacted soils.Three specific objectives will be addressed in the presented study:Objective 1: Promote home/community gardens and small scale agriculture in urban settings through creation of information hub and trainingsObjective 2: Develop safe farming practices based on contaminant mitigation studiesObjective 3: Rate the capacity of biochar for contaminated soil rehabilitation
Project Methods
MethodsObjective 1: Promote home gardens, community gardens, and small scale agriculture in urban settingsAvailable extension information on home and community gardens and small scale agriculture in urban settings will be organized in a user-friendly form that is easily accessible and utilizable for urban gardeners. Information gaps will be identified and technical notes will be produced to address these topics.The Master Gardeners and 4-H programs will be used to assist in the teaching and the implementation ofurban gardens in Puerto Rico. The Master Gardener program in Puerto Rico completed its first year in early 2020. To increase volunteer help in the implementation of urban home gardens, the Second Masters Gardeners training will be held early in the project year. The previous graduates of the Masters Gardeners program will be incorporated in the execution of this second year. As graduates of the program, the master gardeners will be able to instruct community groups and school kids on gardening topics, while also helping the Agriculture Extension Service in its efforts to educate the general public about safe and correct gardening for non-commercial agricultural practices. The involvement of the Master Gardeners and the Master Gardener program in Puerto Rico will allow for urban garden instruction and implementation to increase food security in extreme weather events to perpetuate into the future long after this project concludes.As families with young children and seniors are at greatest risk for lack of food after a hurricane, home garden instruction will be focused on 4-H groups across the island. 4-H members will be encouraged to invite their families and friends to the training in their area. 4-H members will be included in the organization and where appropriate lesson instruction during the training. Lessons and lesson material will be tailored to the audience and will provide various gardening options appropriate for distinct living situations. Participants of the urban garden training will be provided with a starter gardening kit with selected materials to encourage the implementation of the home garden.Field demonstration plots will be coordinated by extension specialists at the (a) Gurabo and Juana Diaz Experimental Stations (see Objective 2 for field plot description) and (b) a demonstration garden located in the Mayaguez area. These specific field plot sites will be established to ensure hands-on experiences and adoption of best management practices (BMP) behind the use of biochar. Field day tours will be coordinated by extension specialists and educators including guided sampling activities, and application demonstrations.Factsheets and eLearning videos will be generated to demonstrate the BMP of biochar application, and educational printed material will also be published. All materials will be posted on the UPRM extension website and social media accounts (https://www.uprm.edu/sea/). Videos will be uploaded for accessibility for the general public at the Extension UPRM YouTube channel. Access to website and video viewings will be tracked and reported to address accessibility and outreach. All materials will be accessible in bilingual (English and Spanish) and shared across the states and territories.Objective 2: Develop safe farming practices based on contaminant mitigation studiesField plot demonstration trials will be carried out at two sites (Agricultural Experimental Station Gurabo and Juana Diaz) to develop region specific farming practices that can be implemented by urban growers. Specialty vegetables such as lettuce, tomato, sweet chili peppers will be grown. Biochar will be applied at three representative rates (1-100 t/ha). Plots with no biochar will be included for each crop to serve as a control treatment. Prior to the application, biochar will be analyzed for PFAS and heavy metals and subjected to the germination test. Organic fertilizer or compost will be added at an agronomic rate to fulfill crop nutrient requirements for specific horticultural crops.Soil at two field sites will be analyzed 1) prior to the biochar application, 2) prior to planting, and 3) after harvest. Samples will be analyzed for chemical and physical parameters such as pH, available P, organic matter content, exchangeable cations (Ca2+, K+, Mg2+), micronutrient content, soil texture, structure and aggregate stability (Cambardella and Elliott, 1992). Additional samples will be sent out to the contract laboratory for soil health specific analysis such as the Haney soil health test. Changes in measured dynamic soil properties will be incorporated in soil health indices that will be used to rank the application rates according to their efficacy for each tested crop. Soil from both fields will be analyzed for background concentrations of PFAS and heavy metals prior to the start of the field trial.During the growth season, plant health will be monitored by recording plant emergence (direct seeded crops) and plant transplanting percentage (transplanted crops), plant growth and development. Diseases and pests pressure will be monitored throughout the growing season in order to protect economic yield and reflect standard BMPs.Upon manual harvesting, plants will be evaluated for a range of properties to reflect the effect of biochar on plant health and crop performance. Marketable fruits (or edible part) number and weight will be recorded for each treatment. Plant height, number of shoots, and individual flowers or clusters (Cucurbits or Solanaceae crops) will be recorded for each plant to reflect the overall plant health. Chlorophyll content will be measured to reflect changes induced by soil salinity. Contents of plant nutrients (N, F, K, Ca, Mg, Zi, B, Fe) will be measured for a composite plant sample for each treatment. Data for nutrient content and crop quality at the two experimental sites, and biochar application rates will be analyzed, and any correlation will be assessed.Objective 3: Rate the capacity of biochar for contaminated soil rehabilitationBiochar locally produced from a range of feedstocks including coffee shrubs, coconut, and other wood biomass using a kiln will be rated based on their capacity to mitigate contaminants in soils using batch soil sorption experiments. The effect of biochar on PFAS (PFOS and PFOA) and heavy metals (Cu, Cd, Pb, Li, Ni, Sb) sorption on two soils representative of the Puerto Rico urban area (San Anton and Montegrande soil series) will be assessed. Sorption batch experiments will be conducted for individual contaminants as well as a mixture of contaminants to account for synergistic effects and possible competition for sorption sites on biochar and soils. Soil-water distribution coefficients (KD) will be calculated as a ratio of contaminants concentrations in solid phase to the respective solute concentrations.Concentrations of heavy metals will be analyzed using Bruker S1 Titan 600 portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF). Concentrations of PFAS compounds will be analyzed according to US EPA 537.1 or US EPA 8327. An Agilent 1290 HPLC 6230 TOF MS system will be used for identification and quantification of PFAS.The reversibility of contaminants' sorption on soils will be measured by desorbing them from soils with a discrete volume of water to simulate the water regime. Desorption will be expressed in terms of desorption coefficients (K?D). The discrepancy in sorption and desorption isotherms will be indicative of nonsingularity of sorption and will be described in terms of hysteresis indexes.Based on the data obtained, locally available biochars will be rated based on their capacity to sorb contaminants at the specific range of concentrations in different soil. This information will be added to the information website developed under Objective 1 to provide urban gardeners with a specific selection tool for biochars.