20256801244236

Widespread and long-term adoption of climate smart agricultural practices (CSAP) on farms represents a critical element of the U.S. national strategy to achieve a 50% reduction in net carbon emissions by 2030.

Nowhere is adoption more important than the Midwestern Corn Belt (MWCB) where 60% of the nation's corn and 58% of its soybeans are currently produced.

To date, however, the rate of CSAP adoption has been slowed by (i) low carbon incentives that reflect market uncertainty and unknown interactions between private markets and federal funding; (ii) novel emerging carbon science that compounds existing farmer hesitancy and uncertainty due to unknown tradeoffs or synergies with important goals like food production and water quality; and (iii) an inability to tailor federal contract or private payment structures to account for vast heterogeneity amongst farmer types and field biophysical characteristics.

This project will address these challenges by translating the science of soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration and farmer behavior into actions that increase SOC stored in agricultural fields of the MWCB while balancing other economic and environmental goals.

To accomplish this outcome, we will develop an integrated policy and decision support system that quantifies economic and environmental outcomes of CSAP adoption from field to regional scales.

The decision support system will enable the development of educational and extension resources including a multi-scale integrated model enabled through knowledge-guided machine learning; an expanded conservation management decision support tool leveraging COMET-PLANNER (Carbon Management and Emission Tool) to quantify trade-offs, synergies, and risks of CSAP adoption; a virtual policy scenario dashboard; an under-represented minority undergraduate STEM research experience; a transdisciplinary graduate training program; and an online carbon science and policy certification program for professionals.

The resulting tools will encourage more widespread adoption of CSAP through improved application of government and private incentives for carbon storage combined with enhanced knowledge of the relationship between the carbon cycle, hydrologic cycle, and water quality.

The project will achieve a longer-term impact through its undergraduate research program and transdisciplinary graduate student cohort, both of which will inspire novel thinking about future complex science problems and their solutions.

Ohio State University

NOT APPLICABLE

10.310 - Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI)

Institute of Bioenergy, Climate, and Environment (IBCE) [USDA - NIFA]

Columbus, Ohio 43210-1016 United States

Single Zip Code

Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Sustainable Agricultural Systems (USDA-NIFA-AFRI-010653)