Coupling human and machine knowledge to optimize tribal food systems

Authors: Ashworth, Amanda; Owens, Phillip

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/21/2022
Publication Date: 10/21/2022
Citation: Ashworth, A.J., Owens, P.R. 2022. Coupling human and machine knowledge to optimize tribal food systems. Abstract. Southwestern Indian Agriculture Association.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Knowledge of soil-landscape systems are key for advancing agriculture and society and there is currently a critical need to couple traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and digital tools for sustainable agricultural management on Native American Tribal Lands. Tribal Reservations have very limited soil information and access to conservation programs provided to other producers in the U.S. These communities face adverse socioeconomic factors such as extreme poverty and high incidence of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, all of which are linked to food insecurity. Since COVID-19 and recent climate change perturbations, these pervasive issues have worsened and adaptive tools for addressing food insecurity on Tribal Lands are urgently needed. There is a need to close the agricultural technology and data gap, particularly for basic soil information to manage water to improve agricultural productivity on Tribal Lands. This project will advance research on the San Carlos and Navajo Tribal Lands for promoting healthy soils and food systems on Native American Lands. Soils vary across landscapes and function based on inherent properties. Because of this, traditional soil maps do not translate functional properties - necessary for optimizing land use. The proposed, innovative digital soil mapping process, known as “knowledge-based inference mapping” is ideal for areas with limited data and provides field-to-nation scale information. This project will provide the first ever high-resolution soil maps and interpretations on Tribal Lands by linking data and TEK via digital soil maps that will be available through an App and delivered to tribal producers for promoting water and nutrient-efficient agriculture. Ultimately, this research will integrate functional soil maps for culturally important agroecological systems that realize optimum returns and accomplish conservation goals for agricultural resource management plans on Tribal Lands. The proposed research will also provide foundational information for future research that advance technology-use on Tribal Lands. Through intensive training workshops, this project will increase Native American students in agriculture and give back to their tribal communities for promoting the production of healthy, sustainable, and nutritive foods by integrating modern technologies. Through spurring water and nutrient efficient agriculture, these technologies will advance system innovation towards practices that promote healthy soils on Tribal soils.