Location: Aerial Application Technology Research
Project Number: 3091-22000-037-015-N
Project Type: Non-Funded Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2024
End Date: Aug 31, 2029
Objective:
Cotton is an important agricultural commodity for the U.S. economy. Intensive tillage, inadequate residue practices, and deteriorating soil health (including soil carbon loss and greenhouse gas emissions) are key sustainability challenges for U.S. cotton. Projected climate change scenarios are expected to exacerbate this problem. To address this issue, a Beltwide multi-state, multi-disciplinary project is proposed with the following specific objectives: 1. Establish soil organic carbon and carbon intensity baselines for different ecoregions in the U.S. Cotton Belt, 2. Evaluate regenerative production practices in cotton for reducing tillage and improving soil health, 3. Evaluate and determine root traits of cotton for carbon sequestration, weed suppression, and climate-change adaptation, 4. Develop and/or evaluate precision AI/ML and smart technologies for improving resource use efficiency and climate change mitigation in cotton, 5. Evaluate the impact of regenerative practices in addressing climate change using simulation models, 6. Evaluate the economic feasibility of precision regenerative production practices and determine new market opportunities, 7. Conduct sociological analysis to identify the barriers and opportunities for promoting regenerative practices, 8. Promote the adoption of regenerative, climate-smart cotton production practices through innovative and collaborative extension and outreach activities, and 9. Provide educational opportunities to train the next generation of research and extension scientists and practitioners, including underserved communities. This integrated project is expected to bring tremendous benefits to the U.S. cotton industry through the development and implementation of sound regenerative practices for addressing climate-change impacts.
Approach:
Establish soil organic carbon and carbon intensity baselines for different ecoregions in the Cotton Belt. To accomplish this, the project will: 1. recruit 20-30 conventional cotton producers from each ecoregion with at least 50% of producers from minority and low-income groups with collaboration with Extension personnel and industry organizations such as the National Black Growers Council; 2. evaluate regenerative production practices in cotton for reducing tillage and improving soil health. To accomplish this, the project will establish four common experiments across project ecoregions; 3. evaluate and determine root traits of cotton for resource use efficiency carbon sequestration, weed suppression, and climate-change adaptation; 4. develop and/or evaluate precision AI/ML and smart technologies for improving resource use efficiency and climate change mitigation in cotton; 5. evaluate the impact of regenerative practices in addressing climate change using simulation models; 6. evaluate the economic feasibility of precision regenerative production practices and determine new market opportunities; 7. conduct sociological analysis to identify the barriers and opportunities for promoting the proposed practices and technologies; 8. promote the adoption of climate-smart cotton production practices through innovative and collaborative extension and outreach activities; and 9. provide educational opportunities, including underserved communities.
