Location: Water Quality and Ecology Research
Project Number: 6060-13660-009-020-N
Project Type: Non-Funded Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 29, 2022
End Date: Apr 20, 2024
Objective:
Our long-term goal is to increase the adoption of economically viable production systems and technologies that improve water quality and quantity. The overall objective for this project is to demonstrate, evaluate, and educate practitioners concerning the effects of coupling cover crop production systems with IWM tools on erosion, off-site agrochemical transport, consumptive water use, and net returns from the field to basin scale.
Approach:
Demonstrate and evaluate at the field-scale how cover crop production systems and IWM technologies improve water quality and quantity parameters, yield, and net returns. The effects of conservation measures on environmental, agronomic, and economic parameters will be evaluated in the Delta region of Mississippi from 2021 through 2024 at a minimum of 28 on-farm locations. Determine the socioeconomic and cultural factors that influence adoption of conservation production and IWM technologies in the LMRB by developing and deploying a survey tool to determine if quantifiable socio-economic variables are related to the adoption of conservation production systems and technologies in the LMRB. A combination of interviews, focus groups, and a survey instrument will be used to drive shrewd conversations in the farmer-to-farmer network. This, in turn, is expected to facilitate adoption of the novel production system in the LMRB.
