Progress report for SW23-952
Project Information
Regenerative Agriculture (RA) producers advocate for their systems-based approach to improving soil health, biodiversity and ecosystem functions from coffee shop conversations to conference panels. Yet there are important challenges to RA implementation in semi-arid environments often missing from these stories. In this project we will integrate producer-led on-farm research and outreach to develop a comprehensive understanding of the linkages between soil health practices and indicators, net profitability, and barriers to adoption for Historically Underserved (HU) producers. Importantly, we will build tools and capacity for producers to document and analyze the outcomes of their RA experiments.
We will accomplish these goals through biophysical and sociological research. Using data from an existing network of 30 farms across the Central High Plains coupled with participatory research on 8 farms, we will identify soil health indicators most relevant to informing the outcomes of on-farm RA experiments in semi-arid environments (Objective 1). We will engage a broader group of producers that represent diverse scales, backgrounds, and production systems through qualitative research and outreach. HU producers have important RA success stories to share, however they face systemic barriers to accessing resources and support. We will define key barriers, best practices and effective strategies to support HU producers in adopting or scaling up soil health practices (Objective 2).
Previous research and partnerships with producers across this multi-state region informed our education and outreach objectives. Producers are experimentalists, constantly testing new approaches and sharing the outcomes of these tests via producer-to-producer networks. Through our participatory research approach we will co-design and quantify the outcomes of RA experiments (Objective 1) while using iterative feedback to create a tool for producers to document, analyze, and communicate the outcomes of their RA experimentation (Objective 3). RA producers report feeling isolated and “groping in the dark'' because they have limited regional data on the agronomic or economic viability of RA practices. We will address this need by facilitating in-person educational events and producer-to-producer learning networks. This will include creating individual connections, enrollment in innovative online networking tools, and field days at diverse farming operations across three states (Objective 4). These networks will ensure that these impacts persist beyond the project funding timeline.
One key challenge to increasing adoption of RA systems is the need to adapt to the local context, including the social, environmental and economic context of the producer. This project addresses this challenge by empowering producers to design, conduct, document, and share their on-farm experiments. The resulting data and case studies will bolster their discussions with stakeholders including landlords, bankers, family members, and build a local, field-scale body of evidence for RA practices.
In addition, we will identify and communicate programmatic, policy, soil health testing, and educational barriers to the adoption of RA practices. These efforts will enhance the adoption of RA practices across diverse farm types, with an emphasis on HU producers, build stronger farmer-to-farmer learning networks, and create new approaches and policies to support all producers.
Objective 1: Identify soil health indicators that are most relevant for informing and quantifying outcomes of on-farm soil health experiments in semi-arid cropping systems.
Objective 2: Identify systemic barriers, best practices, and effective support strategies for historically underserved producers to adopt or scale up soil health practices.
Objective 3: Create a mechanism for producers to easily quantify and communicate the results of their soil health experimentation.
Objective 4: Facilitate producer-to-producer learning networks and knowledge sharing using innovative online and in-person educational tools and programs.
Cooperators
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Producer
- (Researcher)
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Producer
Research
Objective 1: Identify soil health indicators that are most relevant for informing and quantifying outcomes of on-farm soil health experiments in semi-arid cropping systems.
- Identify fields; collect management histories
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We will use a participatory research approach through which producers will identify their resource concern for one field using management history and baseline soil health information. We will co-design an on-farm experiment to evaluate management strategies to address that concern. This research activity will be integrated with the on-farm experimentation tool described in Objective 3. Minimum experimental design criteria for each farm will include: a change in management from status quo across all or part of one field while maintaining a control (status quo) management at the scale of either a strip within a field or on a separate field with the same soil type and management history. Thus, we will have 10 paired treatment-control sites across which to assess the short-term sensitivity of different soil health metrics to changes in management. Producers will be encouraged to add additional replication of treatment and control areas.
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Objective 2: Identify systemic barriers, best practices, and effective support strategies for historically underserved producers to adopt or scale up soil health practices.
- Literature review
- The relational values and systems-focus of regenerative agriculture draws heavily from indigenous or traditional ecological knowledge, however the recognition of these contributions of BIPOC ways of knowing and managing natural resources have largely been erased within the framework of Western science. In addition, more than 98% of U.S. farmland is white-owned, reducing the BIPOC producers and their value systems to the literal margins of modern agriculture. As a first step, we will synthesize existing literature to collect history and explore RA practices amongst HU producers. The vast majority of literature on RA and soil health have involved white producers; BIPOC farmers are left out of published research studies. For example, of the 30 most highly cited papers that include “soil health” + “semi-structured interviews” on google scholar, only one spoke with minority populations. The outcome of this literature review will be a ‘state-of-the-science’ perspective article and a call to action for more inclusive research moving forward.
- Identify final interview participants
- We will use qualitative, semistructured, ethnographic interview methodology to obtain the stories, concerns, and practices of five BIPOC participating farmers. We have intentionally chosen to focus on depth of content quality with our methodology rather than breadth of numbers of producers interviewed. Interviews will be centered around the two study areas based on the reach and membership of the two partner organizations, Flower Hill Institute (FHI) and KBFA. Since the majority of BIPOC farmers have been dispossessed of their lands over the last 100 years due to racist practices at the USDA and predatory forced partition sales of heirs property, when interviewing BIPOC farmers in Kansas and New Mexico, we are necessarily sampling from the deviant case. Furthermore, the two partner organizations are likely familiar with most of the BIPOC farmers in their regions, and those farmers’ views on soil health, land ownership, heirs property, and BIPOC representation. KBFA and FHI have proposed potential participants for this study, whose stories would be illuminating to hear. Therefore, our sampling method would be defined as a judgmental sampling of the deviant case. Participant selection criteria includes: 1) participants must be actively farming as an economic business; and 2) participants will consent to the study purpose and goals.
Objective 1: Identify soil health indicators that are most relevant for informing and quantifying outcomes of on-farm soil health experiments in semi-arid cropping systems.
- Identify fields; collect management histories
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The final 13 participants (representing 10 farming operations) have been identified and onboarded to the project. Nine (of 10) operations are established as vendors in CSU's finance department, and we've started discussions on what soil health experiments they would like to set up for the 2024 season on their fields. We've co-produced the soil testing protocol for the summer, and added items to the testing list based on producer feedback: assays for biological soil health, and fertilizer recommendations informed by biological activity. The testing protocol will be reviewed and finalized in April, ready for sampling starting late May.
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Objective 2: Identify systemic barriers, best practices, and effective support strategies for historically underserved producers to adopt or scale up soil health practices.
- Literature review
- Land tenure is a prerequisite for soil health work. Without an operation of one's own, the capital to invest in new equipment, and the capital to endure failed experiments, one cannot work on soil health. While researching RA practices amongst HU producers, we were struck by the magnitude of the land loss experienced by Black producers, as compared to their white counterparts enduring the same challenges (Dust Bowl, Get Big or Get Out, capital intensification in farming). We therefore pivoted this literature review to understand the patterns of land loss among Black producers since the 1910's, discovering which of those patterns were specific to the South, and which were also at work in Kansas. We found that the two main drivers of Black land loss were racism at the USDA (see USDA's Civil Rights Implementation reports), and exploitation of heirs property. We explored the ways in which the Kansas Black Farmers Association and Nicodemus, the most prominent all-Black settlement in the West, impacted those patterns, and recent efforts by KBFA and the legislature to combat this issue and rebuild Black land ownership at rates on par with what demographics would suggest. The report is in its final draft phases, and will be reviewed internally before being finalized by summer '24.
- Identify final interview participants
- The final 4 KBFA-affiliated participants have been identified for the semistructured interviews. The interview guide will be developed in summer '24.
Research Outcomes
We expect to have recommendations in future progress reports.
Education and Outreach
Participation Summary:
Objective 3: Create a mechanism for producers to easily quantify and communicate the results of their soil health experimentation.
- Define requirements & build alpha version
- Our team will write an app using the Python programming language to help producers run their own on-farm experimentation, track outcomes and generate case studies reports. Producers will be involved in the app’s development through iterative feedback sessions, in group and one-on-one sessions. All of the collaborating producers engaged in the Objective 1 on-farm research will be included in testing the app and providing feedback. The app will help producers establish their experimental design and timeline, and nudge them towards the rigor described in Objective 1 (include a control strip, increase replication to account for in-field variability, etc.). When the producer's experiment begins, the Python program will keep track of what data is due (or overdue) to be entered, and automatically send reminders for the data that is relevant at that moment.
Objective 4: Facilitate producer-to-producer learning networks and knowledge sharing using innovative online and in-person educational tools and programs.
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Facilitate producer networking; 1-to-1 support
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Based on producer input, we have identified a need for facilitating producer-to-producer networks and information sharing. There is demand in the High Plains for more farm visits and field days between producers to see practices “in action” and for informational and social exchanges. Producers value in-person exchanges, but geographical distances across our region also make online networking tools an essential component of maintaining social networks. Thus, we will facilitate both in-person and innovative online outreach and educational programming.
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Objective 3: Create a mechanism for producers to easily quantify and communicate the results of their soil health experimentation.
- Define requirements & build alpha version
- We built the alpha version of the app over summer '23 and winter break '23-'24. Alpha has been launched and is currently being tested by project staff (Meagan Schipanski, Joni Mitchek) with test projects. We are finding bugs and fixing them, and collecting feature requests for the beta version. We will do a short cycle of app updates at the beginning of summer '24, and then will launch it to the participating producers.
Objective 4: Facilitate producer-to-producer learning networks and knowledge sharing using innovative online and in-person educational tools and programs.
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Facilitate producer networking; 1-to-1 support
- Facilitated farmer networking. We have connected new collaborating producers involved in this WSARE project with producers that are part of our previous FARMS farmer-to-farmer network. 11 of 13 participants have opted into unrestricted sharing of contact info (phone and email) with all other participants (the other two opted into case-by-case sharing).
- 2 Webinars were hosted with collaborating producers. Participants requested more of these types of zoom meetings.
- In-person programs: we are in the planning phase for our first in-person event, a field day in Seibert, CO in Aug '24.
- Project press release was published in multiple news outlets
- 4 invited presentations:
- ‘Conserving soil and water resources in semi-arid regions’ at the UN FAO World Soil Day Celebration, New York, NY. December 7, 2023. Dr Meagan Schipanski
- Presented to the NRCS State Technical Advisory Committee in Colorado. Broomfield CO, March 13, 2024. Lauren Hafford and Joni Mitchek
- Presented at Colorado Conservation Tillage Association's High Plains No Till pre-conference FARMS Workshop, Burlington CO, Feb 5, 2024. Lauren Hafford and Joni Mitchek
- Delivered a webinar on soil health principles, hosted by project partners Flower Hill Institute. Jemez Pueblo NM, Feb 7, 2024. Lauren Hafford
Education and Outreach Outcomes
We have received numerous requests to host the producer Zoom meetings more frequently, and will set them up bi-monthly going forward. Producers are eager to start the in-person networking and soil health testing, and are looking forward to the field day.
- Fostering soil health in a vegetable system that includes tillage
- Composting types, options, and methods
- Soil health principles, and how they can be applied differently depending on context
Appreciation for the extra barriers facing BIPOC producers, compared to the farmer who inherited his land