Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The rapidly changing climate has seriously challenged Agricultural production and productivity, resulting inglobalfood insecurity. The recent occurrences of extreme climate-related events, such as the California fire, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and record heat indexes in various parts of the U.S., have severely impacted the lives of humans, plants, and animals, as well as caused enormous damage to the property, including agricultural lands and facilities, resulting in massive economic loss. The trend of extreme climatic occurrences for the past couple of years and its severity has significantly increased over the decades. The increment in an annual monetary loss to weather/climate-related disasters in the USA has been reported to be around 3.55 folds from the 80s ($21.2 B/yr. - 1980-1989) to 2010s ($96.4 B/yr. - 2010-2019). In the last three years (2020-2022), the monetary loss caused by climate-related disasters was $151.1 B/yr.When we think about the impact of the changing climate on farmers, small and minority farmers would be more vulnerable than large farmers because of the formers' disadvantaged position in terms of economies of scale, having limited resources recovering from the potential loss, and limited access to educationalopportunities or limited ability to participate in educational activities. Most farms in the USA are small and family-owned (89.7%), operate almost half (47.7%) of the total farmland, and generate around 21% of the total agricultural production. To minimize the pace of climate change and its effects on agriculture and the livelihood of vulnerable people, there is an urgent need to develop solutions based on locally applicable research findings and promote their adoption through farmers' education, encouragement or reinforcement, and incentive support.There is an enormous opportunity to contribute to decelerating the speed of climate change by transforming traditional agricultural practices into climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAP) that minimize the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and increase carbon sequestration. Globally, the USA is one of the most significant GHG emitters (15%), next to China (30%). Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) are the major GHGs, with their respective share of 79.4%, 11.5%, and 6.2% of the total US GHG emissions in 2021. Agricultural activities accounted for 10% of GHG emissions in 2021 in the USA. The major agricultural components associated with GHG emission are related to soil management (>50%), ruminant livestock (>25%), manure management (12%), and the remainder to the application of lime and urea fertilizers and burning of crop residues. Adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices, such as minimizing soil tillage, cultivation of cover crops and perennial crops, growing legumes with non-legume crops and forages, thereby minimizing the need for the application of commercial nitrogen fertilizers, plantation of working trees and shrubs in the agroforestry system (e.g., alley cropping, silvopasture), composting animal manure and other agricultural waste and using compost to enrich soil, improving the quality of animal feed and forages, and minimizing animal stress can reduce GHG emission and augment carbon sequestration, thereby stabilizing the process of climate change.This project intends to promote the adoption of CSA practices by improving understanding, knowledge, education, and support for farmers. Broadly, i) evaluate the climate benefits (increase carbon sequestration and reduce GHG emission) of selected, locally-adaptable CSAPs (alley cropping of fruits and vegetables and silvopastures integrated with small ruminants), and ii) educate, encourage, and facilitate farmers and other stakeholders for the adoption of CSAPs.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
75%
Applied
0%
Developmental
25%
Goals / Objectives
Objective 1:To evaluate the fruit-vegetable alley cropping system for its climatic and economic benefits by involving cooperator farmers and establishing on-farm climate-smart demonstration sites.Objective 2: To determine the potential of silvopasture in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from small ruminants and enhancing carbon sequestration.Objective 3: To educate small and minority farmers and landowners on climate-smart agricultural practices and assess factors influencing their willingness and challenges in adopting these practices.
Project Methods
Operational methodologyObjective 1This study will be conducted on the farms of nine cooperator farmers, who show interest and willingness to participate in this project and dedicate five acres of agricultural land. Farmers will be trained and supported with technical services and inputs needed for establishing alley cropping by planting suitable fruit speciesin rows. Selected vegetablesand medicinal plants. There will be three main understory crops: specialty vegetables, medicinal herbs, and ethnic vegetables in the perennial fruit orchards.The GHG emission and carbon sequestration will be measured at each site in both the alley cropping system and the traditional vegetable production system without fruit trees, and the economic and environmental benefits between the practices will be compared.Leguminous cover cropswill be sown in alleys after the fall harvest of vegetables/herbs. Tree growth will be measured annually, and carbon sequestration in the above and underground biomass will be estimated.One climate-smart alley croppingorchard in an acre will be established in three countiesfor education, applied research, hands-on training, site tours, and field days for educating other farmers, landowners, and other stakeholders for delivering continued education. These demonstration sites will work as Extension's outreach model in each county for educating farmers, students, parents, teachers, staff, and community members.Objective 2The study will be conducted using the silvopasture plots located at the Atkins Agroforestry Research and Demonstration site of Tuskegee University and open pasture plots. At the beginning of the study, soil samples will be collected and analyzed for soil pH, carbon content, and nutrient status for growing legume-grass mix forages suitable to the soil type, growing season, and grazing animals to create a similar forage system at both sites. The soil carbon data will be used as the baseline data for carbon sequestration for both sites.Before beginning warm-season grazing each year, 10 random soil samples per plot from both sites will be collected and analyzed for carbon content. The GHG (CO2, CH4, and N2O) effluxes from the ground surface will be captured using a portable system Li-8400once in each spring, summer, and fall season each year of the project.Carbon sequestration in forages will be calculated from the forage productivity data from both sites using a modified version of the IPCC methodology. Carbon sequestration in trees present in silvopasture system will be estimated annually from their above- and below-ground biomass.For quantifying GHG emissions from animals raised in silvopasture and open-pasture systems, 30 meat goats of the same breed, sex, and age will be used for the study during the first two grazing seasons of the project. The initial set of GHG emissions from animals will be measured using the GreenFeed system installed on a trailer attached to a truck. Once measurement is completed on animals at one site, the GreenFeed system will be transported to another grazing system, and GHG measurements will be taken from animals.Objective 3The following activities will be implemented to accomplish this objective. i) publication and distribution of Extension educational materials such as Brochures, Flyers, Factsheets, Pamphlets, and Technotes (500 copies each).ii) organize three annual educational events (training, workshop, and field day) for three years.iii) Create a Facebook group of CSA producers to educate a wider audience about climate change and mitigation approaches.iv) Make a video about climate change and CSA as a teaching aid.v) Administer baseline and endline surveys to maintain a project trajectory. The baseline survey is to obtain information before the project implementation on factors determining the willingness and challenges project farmers were facing on adopting CSAPs; current knowledge, attitude, awareness, skills, and financial incentives for adopting CSAPs; socio-economic and demographic backgrounds, farm holding, and farming experience to name a few. The same survey will be administered at the end of the project. The baseline and endline surveys will allow us to measure the changes in selected indicators such as knowledge gain, change in attitude, awareness, skills, actions, and challenges of the project farmers due to the project interventions. vi) organize a group discussion with the cooperator producers towards the end of the project in an informal setting to triangulate the information collected through surveys.Collaborative effort:UMES will invite experts from TU to educate key personnel, students, and producers on the issues related to animal sciences and the measurement of carbon sequestration and GHG emissions, respectively. Accordingly, UMES key personnel will collaborate with TU in designing surveys, analyzing data, and helping participant farmers market CSCs. Both institutionswill work collectively to prepare and deliver presentations and develop manuscripts regarding project findings to publish in peer-reviewed journals and Extension outlets.Evaluation:The evaluation plan will focus on process evaluation consisting of quarterly, annual, and final evaluation reports, observations from field visits, feedback obtained from progress review meetings and participants' interviews, and pre-and post-event assessments. In addition, the evaluation plan also includes a performance evaluation approach. The baseline and endline surveys with producers will be one of the components of the performance evaluation.The following indicators will be used to evaluate project outputs and outcomes: i) the number of training, workshops, and field days organized, ii) the number and frequency of producers, Extension professionals, faculty, staff, and producers who participated in educational events, iii) type and number of Extension educational materials published and distributed, iv) a number of producers adopting CSAs, v) a number of peer-reviewed articles published, vi) a number of presentations made in conferences and meetings, vii) quantity of CS commodities produced, sold, and consumed. The expected changes in the short-medium- and long term will be estimated using both qualitative and quantitative tools to assess the changes made due to project interventions.