Participatory Implementation of Sustainable Vegetable Systems for Small and Limited Resource Farmers

Participatory Implementation of Sustainable Vegetable Systems for Small and Limited Resource Farmers

Summary

After meeting in the summer of 2002, participants from Tuskegee and Auburn Universities decided to tailor experiments to the needs and interests of growers working with each university. Experiments began in October 2002 after cover crop regimes were chosen in consultation with growers. The crops included black oat, crimson clover, hairy vetch, and winter rye. Vegetable transplants will be introduced in May 2003 under the management practices of conventional tillage, minimum tillage, strip-tillage, and no-till. For transplants, three treatments will be superimposed: two biological treatments and a non-biological control. This spring growers will evaluate experimental plots and plan on-farm trials.

Objectives/Performance Targets

The objectives for this project are as follows. 1) Maintain the viability and profitability of the grower participant farms by implementing an integrated sustainable production system. 2) Improve grower communication by facilitating networks of vegetable growers. 3) Remove marketing barriers by developing strategies to help growers gain the best price for their crop. 4) Secure the continuance of a systems approach in Alabama agriculture by developing classroom modules for increasing student knowledge of implementing sustainable agriculture.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Auburn and Tuskegee

The Tuskegee University and Auburn University collaborators held a planning meeting in summer 2002 at Tuskegee. During this meeting, it was decided to officially commence the experimental portion of the project in October, 2002 with the planting of the first cover crops at the university field sites. Three field sites were selected: the Tuskegee University experimental field station and Alabama Agricultural Experiment substations at Cullman and Sand Mountain, Alabama.

The choice of cover crops was also discussed at the planning meeting. We considered adding some additional cover crops to those envisioned in the proposal. It was decided that a list of potential cover crops would be presented to the grower participants. We would use their comments and suggestions to make a final list of cover crops.

A final point of discussion at the planning meeting was the question of whether or not the experimental set-up needed to be identical between experiments supervised by Tuskegee and Auburn. While it might seem from the outside that the answer would clearly be “yes,” it is necessary to understand that the grower groups who will use the information provided by Tuskegee and Auburn have different agronomic practices. For example, the limited-resource farmers who will benefit from the Tuskegee work do not currently use plastic mulch, while the small traditional farmers who will benefit from the Auburn work do. Thus, we agreed to follow similar designs but adapt them according to grower input and agronomic needs and practices in the different areas of the state.

Auburn University

On August 20, 2002, Auburn University personnel met with grower participants in Blount and St. Clair Counties. The overall aim and schedule of the project was explained to the grower participants. The list of potential cover crops was presented. All grower participant families had some experience with cover crops. Some growers were not currently using cover crops but indicated a willingness to use them if they could help reduce input costs and reduce nematode damage on tomato. Others had tried cover crops during the winter of 2001 and expressed strong interest in continuing such trials. The meeting with the grower participants concluded with an agreement that in spring 2003 the growers would view the cover crops established at Cullman and Sand Mountain to help assess which of the treatments looked most promising. Further, the growers agreed to view the results of the summer 2003 vegetable trials to be conducted at Cullman and Sand Mountain in the cover crop area.

Experimental work on the proposal began in the fall of 2002 with the establishment of cover crops on field sites. Three cover crop regimes were included: 1) crimson clover, hairy vetch, and winter rye mixed together and planted in the fall; 2) black oat and rye mixed together and planted in the fall; and 3) black oat alone planted in early spring.

Each of these three cover crop regimes will be divided into two blocks. In one block, vegetable transplants will be introduced in May 2003 with strip-tillage, while no-till will be used in the other block. Three treatments will then be superimposed on the blocks: two biological treatments and a non-biological control. All treatments and cover crop + tillage variables will be compared to an agronomic standard. The agronomic standard for the Auburn experiments will be plastic tarping on raised beds, while the standard for Tuskegee experiments will be no plastic tarping.

Tuskegee University

In the late fall of 2002 and the early spring of 2003, Tuskegee University personnel met with small-scale growers representing seven counties in different areas of the Black Belt Region of South-Central Alabama: Barbour, Bullock and Henry Counties to the east, Macon, Montgomery and Autauga Counties in the Central area, and Dallas County to the west.

Prior to planting, core soil samples were taken from the experiment site in the upper 0-15 cm. A sub-sample of the soil was air-dried and ground to < 2-mm screen. The following analyses were performed: pH, inorganic nitrogen (NH4+ and NO3-), available phosphorus, and particle size distribution. Another sub-sample was ground to < 180-µm screen for the determination of total phosphorus, total nitrogen, organic carbon, and organic sulfur.

The experiment compares yields of tomatoes under three cover crop treatments and a control (without a cover crop) for two management practices (conventional tillage and minimum tillage). The experiment is a factorial arrangement of cover crops (control, black oat alone, crimson clover alone, and a mixture of black oat and crimson clover) and two-management practices (conventional tillage and minimum tillage). The cover crop treatments were assigned at random to whole plots within each block and the management practices were assigned at random to the subplots within each whole plot. The whole-plot design is a randomized complete block (Figure 1).

Four rows of tomato will be planted per plot. The spacing between rows will be 1.00 m and 0.60 m within rows. At maturity the two middles rows will be harvested and yields from those rows will be extrapolated to a full plot.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Accomplishing the objectives for this project will provide a model for implementing sustainable agricultural practices in other areas of the country, with other crop systems, and among small and limited resource farmers. At the end of this project, it is expected that grower participants will still be engaged in farming and will have increased profits. We also expect that grower participants will be using more sustainable practices; that detrimental environmental impacts will be lowered; that some form of cooperation will exist among the growers; and that growers will have links to niche markets and more markets available to them. This project can have long-lasting impacts through our plan to educate university students in systems approaches to agricultural problems. Further, the project can serve as a model for other cropping systems throughout the southeast and can be a model for implementation of a sustainable program for both traditional and limited resource farmers.

Collaborators: