Exploring the Potential of Cultural Cash Crops and Cover Crops in Specialty Crop Production

Project Overview

ONC24-148
Project Type: Partnership
Funds awarded in 2024: $42,344.00
Projected End Date: 03/31/2026
Grant Recipient: Community Crops Program, Family Service Lincoln
Region: North Central
State: Nebraska
Project Coordinator:
Amy Gerdes
Email
Community Crops

Commodities

No commodities identified

Practices

No practices identified

Proposal abstract:

Small-scale specialty crop production presents many sustainability challenges, including creating crop rotations that are fiscally responsible, suppress weeds, and maintain or improve soil health. Additional challenges are experienced by refugee and immigrant farmers, including language barriers and a need to adapt production methods for culturally important crops. This project partners with a group of diverse specialty crop farmers in Southeastern Nebraska to test innovative cover cropping strategies over two seasons. Comparative performance of five culturally-important cash crops and five high-performing cover crops will be examined. The crops' productivity, weed suppression ability, as well as the monetary value of the cash crops will be measured. Desired outcome is the adoption of new cultural cash crops and traditional cover crops into small specialty crop farmers’ crop rotations. 

Participating farmers will receive four education/demonstration sessions annually on cover crops and related techniques for specialty crop operations. These sessions will also be open to other area farmers, agricultural professionals, and the broader public. Educational materials and research findings will be shared in English and Arabic, with an emphasis on reaching Midwestern farmers of Arabic-speaking backgrounds. This innovative approach makes information on sustainable agricultural practices more broadly available to refugee and immigrant farming communities.     

Project objectives from proposal:

  1. 10 farmers will receive technical assistance implementing cover crop and culturally relevant Middle Eastern cash crops into their farm operations. 
  2. 4 education/demonstration sessions (15 attendees each) will educate on cover crop usage and related techniques. Research findings on effectiveness of the culturally relevant cash crop and traditional western cover crops will be made publicly available in English and Arabic.  
  3. Select educational materials related to cover crop management and culturally important cash crops will be created and shared in English and Arabic. 
  4. Project representatives will present findings at one conference in the North Central region. 
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.