Source: TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
ECO-HAWQS@FARM - HELPING SMALL FARMS MANAGE CLIMATE RISK WITH ECONOMICALLY VIABLE CONSERVATION PRACTICES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1030532
Grant No.
2023-68006-40298
Cumulative Award Amt.
$649,965.00
Proposal No.
2022-10396
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Aug 1, 2023
Project End Date
Jul 31, 2026
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[A1601]- Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities: Small and Medium-Sized Farms
Recipient Organization
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
750 AGRONOMY RD STE 2701
COLLEGE STATION,TX 77843-0001
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
This project works closely with small and medium-scale farmers and local soil and water conservation managers to develop an Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS) specifically designed to help them assess the risks and benefits of adopting new conservation management practices to respond to drought and climate-related stresses. This integrated online platform will be developed as ECOHAWQS@Farm, the "Economic Conservation, Hydrologic, and Water Quality Systems at Farm Scales." We will develop and test the performance of ECO-HAWQS@Farm working with small and medium-sized farms in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas (LRGVT) and the Umatilla River Basin (URB) of Oregon. These regions have diverse farming systems involving various crops, technologies, management, and conservation practices.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
11101992090100%
Knowledge Area
111 - Conservation and Efficient Use of Water;

Subject Of Investigation
0199 - Soil and land, general;

Field Of Science
2090 - Statistics, econometrics, and biometrics;
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of this project is to help small and medium-sized farmers assess the risks and benefits of adopting new conservation practices so that they are economically viable and resilient and that their operations are environmentally sustainable. The supporting objectives are to (1) Develop the ECO-HAWQS@Farm IDSS for small and medium-sized farmers; (2) Apply and evaluate the IDSS effectiveness in evaluating the economic feasibility of small farmers adopting new conservation practices; (3) Test the utility of the IDSS working with stakeholder farmers, land and water managers, and students; and (4) Communicate the results of the project widely to farmers, soil and water conservation managers, the economic and scientific communities, and appropriate government agencies.
Project Methods
We will develop and verify the performance of ECO-HAWQS@Farm using data from selected small and medium size farms in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas (LRGVT) and the Umatilla River Basin (URB) of Oregon. These regions have diverse farming systems involving various crops, technologies, management, and conservation practices. We will then engage selected farmers, students, soil and water conservation district, and USDA-NRCS personnel familiar with those regions to provide the feedback needed to improve the functionality and utility of ECO-HAWQS@Farm for agricultural producers and their advisors. We believe that the project will provide a robust demonstration of the utility of ECO-HAWQS@FARM and will form a strong basis for extending the use of ECO-HAWQS@FARM to other regions in the United States and beyond.

Progress 08/01/23 to 07/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project is small and medium-sized farmers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas (LRGVT) and the Umatilla River Basin (URB) of Oregon. Stakeholders also include soil and water conservation organizations and local farm group representatives. During this first phase of the project, the focus has been on developing the modeling tools that will be used to address stakeholder needs. Informal conversations with stakeholders have focused on identifying farm and local crop and environmental data resources. The protocols for engaging with stakeholders more formally in workshops and listening sessions have been developed and approved by the Texas A&M and Oregon State University Institutional Review Boards. This approval process was more detailed and drawn out than expected, resulting in well-described processes. Still, it has delayed the implementation of the workshops and listening sessions in this first year. Changes/Problems:As mentioned in the previous sections, the development and approval of stakeholder engagement protocols took longer than anticipated. This has delayed fully engaging with stakeholders and resolving access to farmer and local data. We have proceeded with data from the literature appropriate to the area as well as other publicly domain data resources. We have completed the review and approval at the two universities and are now getting back on schedule. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Oregon State University has brought on a graduate student trained in the development and application of SWAT within the Orgon project study areas. Two of the participants in the project from Texas A&M participated in an international conference on SWAT, both in appropriate workshop sessions and as presenters in conference sessions. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?An article about the project was published in Texas A&M Today, entitled "New Modeling App To Assist Farmers With Forecasting: Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists are developing a tool that integrates weather, market prices, and farm conditions to aid predictive planning. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue implementing the tasks identified in our project proposal, focusing on working with stakeholders and accelerating the model coupling.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The project's overarching goal is to help small and medium-sized farmers make land management and farm decisions that enhance the economic viability of their operations while managing water resources and protecting the environment. To support this goal, we are coupling the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) with economic modeling tools, like FARMSIM, so that farm, environment, and economic decisions and results can be assessed concurrently. Stakeholder engagement and involvement is a significant component of the project. As mentioned in the preceding section on Target Audiences, the development and approval of stakeholder engagement protocols at our respective universities took longer than anticipated, and we are running behind our originally planned schedule of activities. In the meantime, we have identified publicly available local and relevant larger region crop, water, and economic data. Our Texas A&M and OSU teams have collaborated to identify the input and output of the SWAT and economic models. We have identified several priority crops and crop management prevalent in the respective watersheds and developed appropriate data tables. We have compared the requirements of an IDSS economic model developed for a project with USAID and FARMSIM. We have developed a simplified spreadsheet-based model to isolate and focus the combined data requirements ofSWAT and the economic models to run preliminary test results for an integrated system. We have compared the preliminary results of a full-scale FARMSIM approach to a scaled-down simulation model.

Publications