Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
There is a critical need for expanding organic cotton area and production in the US due to rapidly increasing consumer demands for organic cotton products and very low domestic supplies. Achieving this will require a coordinated effort among researchers, Extension specialists, and broader industry stakeholders. The long-term goal of this project is to sustainably expand organic cotton production in the US Cotton Belt through the promotion of regenerative production practices. The Specific objectives of this project are: 1. Partner with long-term organic cotton producers to observe agronomic practices, track soil health, conduct economic evaluations, and identify sociological constraints and opportunities; 2. Evaluate agronomic, ecosystem, and economic benefits of locally suitable regenerative practices; 3. Evaluate weed suppressive potential of advanced breeding/already developed cotton lines for utilization in organic production; 4. Expand adoption of organic production practices through collaborative extension and demonstration activities; 5. Provide educational opportunities to train the next generation of research and extension scientists and organic practitioners. These objectives were developed based on extensive discussions with various stakeholders involved in organic cotton production and marketing.Understanding the agronomic, economic, and marketing strategies employed by long-term organic cotton producers is critical in our efforts to increase organic cotton production in the US Cotton Belt. Through field visits and discussions, we were able to establish a 4-year partnership with organic cotton producers managing a total of 63 certified/transitioning organic fields, spanning across New Mexico, Texas, and Tennessee. These fields include transitioning (<3 yrs) and certified organic operations ranging from 1 to 12 years in duration. These organic cotton producers have agreed to collaborate throughout the duration of the project and are enthusiastic to learn about new management practices, soil health, and carbon marketing opportunities in working with the team. A total of 23 conventional cotton fields in an adjacent locality will also be included as a basis for comparison. Thus, a total of 86 fields will be studied over 4 years.The Objective 1 of the proposed OREI project will directly involve these 86 cotton fields covering approximately 7500 acres in Texas (56 fields), 3000 acres in New Mexico (24 fields), and ~100 acres in Tennessee (6 fields). In Texas, the fields will comprise two equal sets of irrigated and dryland cotton since both are common, whereas in NM and TN all fields are irrigated. In collaboration with these organic cotton farmers, we will study the impact of agronomic production practices followed by each participating farmer on cotton growth, pest incidence (weeds, insect pests, diseases, nematodes), yield, and quality over a period of 4 years (Objective 1a). By connecting with these organic producers and studying their operations, our goal is to identify production practices that have been viable for them and also identify where challenges still exist, and improvements could still be made. These producers may have already overcome major adoption barriers since they have been successfully growing organic cotton over a number of years; however, the sustainability of these practices is unknown, especially from the soil health standpoint. For example, a farmer relying heavily on tillage for weed control may be able to successfully grow the crop short-term, but this practice can severely compromise soil health over the long-term. By closely monitoring soil health indicators (Objective 1b), we will be able to determine which practices are promoting cotton yield without jeopardizing soil health in the long run and which ones need improvements. Our contact farmers have agreed to share the information on input costs and sale prices, which will be used to conduct a partial budget analysis and determine the economic sustainability of their operations. The economic analysis will also include the benefits of soil health promotion measures obtained with regenerative practices such as cover cropping (Objective 1c). These farmers will also be engaged in socioeconomic investigations to understand barriers and opportunities for organic production (Objective 1d). Collaboration with these farmers will also help us understand their operations for thorough scientific investigations of their practices and socio-economic constraints and opportunities.In Objective 2, fully-replicated small-plot experiments will be conducted in certified organic fields in New Mexico, Texas, and Tennessee over a 4-year period to evaluate specific regenerative management practices currently not in common use by farmers in the region. The experiments in Tennessee are expected to assist with expanding organic cotton research and outreach activities to the Mississippi Delta. In addition to providing locally-relevant research data, these plots will allow for experiential learning of regenerative practices as well as serve as demonstration venues. Additionally, evaluations will be carried out to select cotton varieties with weed-suppressive potential for utilization in organic production (Objective 3).The project will develop and deliver outreach/extension programs to foster continued growth of the organic cotton industry in the US Cotton Belt (Objective 4). The outreach activities also include broader stakeholder engagement for establishing partnerships among various parties involved in organic cotton production, marketing, and consumption. Furthermore, a robust educational activity is planned for training the next generation of scientists and practitioners, utilizing the broad range of field activities planned as part of this project (Objective 5).Overall, this project addresses critical stakeholder-identified needs. It is anticipated that the findings will greatly advance our understanding of organic cotton production practices that are profitable and sustainable. This will eventually promote the implementation of best management practices and help increase the acreage and production of organic cotton in the US.
Animal Health Component
60%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
60%
Developmental
10%
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of this project is to sustainably increase organic cotton production in the US Cotton Belt through a partnership with organic cotton producers. This will be accomplished via developing the necessary agronomic knowledge on regenerative cotton production practices, facilitating field implementation of such practices through innovative outreach activities, promoting market opportunities by partnering with broader industry stakeholders, and implementing educational programs to train the next generation of researchers, agronomists, growers, and industry stakeholders.The specific objectives of this project are:Partner with long-term organic cotton producers toevaluate the impact of current agronomic practices on cotton growth, pest incidence, soil fertility, yield, and qualityestablish regional soil health and carbon baselines to track outcomes of regenerative production practices that create quantifiable changes in soil health, soil carbon, and greenhouse gas emissionsconduct economic evaluations on various agronomic practices and soil health measures to determine practices that are profitable and sustainableattain a deeper understanding of adoption constraints and opportunities associated with organic cotton production in the US Cotton BeltDevelop locally suitable regenerative practices to advance agronomic, ecosystem, and economic benefits of organic cotton productionEvaluate weed suppressive potential of advanced breeding/already developed cotton lines for utilization in organic productionExpand adoption of organic production practices through collaborative extension and demonstration activitiesProvide educational opportunities to train the next generation of research and extension scientists and organic practitioners
Project Methods
Objective 1. Assessment of existing organic cotton operationsIn this objective, we will work closely with organic cotton producers identified across NM, TX, and TN. In each state (except TN), the sites will be grouped into 4 treatments (T1-3, CS1-5, CL≥6, T0) based on the duration of organic production: 1) transitioning (T1-3; ≤ 3 yrs), 2) certified short-term (CS1-5; 1 to 5 yrs into certified production), 3) certified long-term (CS>6; 6 to 12 yrs), and 4) conventional (T0). Thus, we have a total of 14 fields/treatment group in TX (56 fields; 28 each in irrigated and dryland) and 6 per group in NM (24 fields). In TN, there will be three fields each for treatments #2 and #4. At the beginning of the project in Year 1, we will conduct a detailed survey of all 86 fields to understand the soil characteristics and management practices used.In collaboration with these organic cotton farmers, we will study the impact of agronomic production practices followed by each participating farmer on cotton growth, pest incidence (weeds, insect pests, diseases, nematodes), yield, and quality over a period of 4 years (Objective 1a). By connecting with these organic producers and studying their operations, our goal is to identify production practices that have been viable for them and also identify where challenges still exist, and improvements could still be made. These producers may have already overcome major adoption barriers since they have been successfully growing organic cotton over a number of years; however, the sustainability of these practices is unknown, especially from the soil health standpoint. By closely monitoring soil health indicators (Objective 1b), we will be able to determine which practices are promoting cotton yield without jeopardizing soil health in the long run and which ones need improvements. We will conduct a partial budget analysis and determine the economic sustainability of their operations. The economic analysis will also include the benefits of soil health promotion measures obtained with regenerative practices such as cover cropping (Objective 1c). These farmers will also be engaged in socioeconomic investigations to understand barriers and opportunities for organic production (Objective 1d). Collaboration with these farmers will help us understand their operations for thorough scientific investigations of their practices and socio-economic constraints and opportunities.Objective 2. Develop locally suitable regenerative practices to advance agronomic, ecosystem, and economic benefits of organic cotton productionOn-station field experiments will be conducted in four locations (Las Cruces, NM; Lubbock, TX; College Station, TX; Memphis, TN), one site per location, to evaluate various regenerative practices. These four locations represent two major environmental gradients/regions (arid/semi-arid: Las Cruces, Lubbock; and moist: College Station, Memphis). The dryland vs irrigated production will be compared in Lubbock since both systems are common in the region. In NM, College Station-TX and TN, the plots will be irrigated on an as-needed basis. The experiment will be arranged in an RCBD design with five treatments of tillage and novel weed control combinations (i.e. programs), and replicated four times. Soil samples (1 composite sample made of 10 sub-samples in each plot, 15 cm depth) will be collected at the beginning of the study in Year 1 and again at the end in Year 4, for monitoring changes to the 12 soil health metrics (soil pH, soil EC, cation exchange capacity, extractable phosphorus, phosphatase enzyme activity, extractable potassium, total nitrogen, wet aggregate stability, dry bulk density, soil organic carbon, soil respiration, and microbiome composition).Objective 3. Evaluate weed suppressive potential of advanced breeding/already developed cotton lines for utilization in organic productionTwo released cultivars, CA 4014 and CA 4015 (Maeda et al. 2022) and 20 advanced breeding lines (candidate cultivars) available in Dr. Dever's program, along with currently used check cultivar FM 958 (PVP 200100208, PI 619096) will be evaluated to identify those that show potential for weed suppression (total 23 lines). These will include deep-rooting, high-yielding, 18-16-3507, and high-quality okra-leaf 18-06-205. Pedigrees of the strains include germplasm released in previous awards, thrips tolerant CA 4005 and CA 4006 (Wann et al. 2017), abiotic stress resilient CA 4007 (Dever et al. 2020) and 4008 (Dever et al. 2022), and high fiber quality CA 4009 and CA 4010 (Kelly et al. 2021). In the TX High Plains, the field experiments will be conducted in five environments (Halfway, TX: center-pivot irrigated; Lubbock, TX: rainfed and furrow irrigated; and Lamesa, TX: rainfed and pivot irrigated) across two years.Objective 4. Expand adoption of organic production practices through collaborative extension and demonstration activitiesTo develop a successful outreach program, we will engage regional organic cotton producers and member-based and non-profit organizations at the center of knowledge dissemination activities. For outreach activities, we will utilize the collective knowledge and experience of the producers identified in this project in TX, NM, and TN as well as the Co-PDs of the project who have extensive experience with outreach. AgriCenter International, for example, attracts 1.3 million visitors annually. Engaging county extension agents is also an essential component of our outreach efforts. To evaluate and accelerate the sustainable outcomes for organic cotton production, we will work with Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture to utilize their free Fieldprint Calculator (https://calculator.fieldtomarket.org/). The Organic Center (TOC) and the Organic Trade Association (OTA) will directly assist the project with a host of outreach activities. The combined reach of the two organizations' social media pages is over 140,000 individuals for Facebook, and over 80,000 followers for Twitter. The newsletters have a combined reach of over 24,000 individuals.Objective 5. Provide educational opportunities to train the next generation of research and extension scientists and organic practitionersTexas A&M University-College Station (1860 land-grant and Hispanic Serving Institution/HIS) will establish an organic cotton summer undergraduate research program in collaboration with Prairie View A&M University (1890 land-grant, Black Serving), Texas A&M University-Kingsville (Hispanic Serving), Texas Tech University (Hispanic Serving), and New Mexico State University (Hispanic Serving), centered on organic cotton production and sustainability. This program will be an eight-week (June and July) paid research, outreach, and leadership program specifically designed with two-weeks of hands-on field experience in one of the organic cotton experimental field locations. We will also support selected undergraduate students from the cohorts to participate in professional meetings and present their findings. Additionally, most of the Co-PDs have formal teaching appointments handling undergraduate and graduate courses. Learnings from this project will be integrated into the teaching curriculum. A total of 35 undergraduate courses and 5 graduate courses will be benefited from across the 7 educational institutions. At the AgriCenter International (TN), the organic research sites will be used in STEM education, which reaches about 10,000 school students annually from across the Mid-South region.