Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
Proposal abstract:
The agricultural landscape, economy, and community of WI and the Upper Midwest are in dire need of new options to address climate change, soil and water problems, and farm loss from continued consolidation around a few major commodities. Hazelnut-based agroforestry is a potential solution as nut crops fix carbon and provide ecosystem services while generating high per-acre profits compared to annual commodities. The Upper Midwest Hazelnut Development Initiative (UMHDI) is a collaboration of growers and researchers working together since 2007 to build a hazelnut industry in the Upper Midwest essentially from scratch. We are currently in the early commercialization phase and are being very strategic in concurrently scaling nursery supply chains, nut production, and market development. We launched and are supporting the grower-owned American Hazelnut Company, which currently has more demand for its value-added products than supply. We have a network of five nurseries propagating our top improved genotypes as fast as they can. Key to strategic scale-up of nut production is the Hazelnut Go-First Farm (GFF) Network, which conducts research, demonstration, and supply chain development through a network of at-scale hazelnut plantings in key regions across Wisconsin.
Project objectives from proposal:
- Continue to grow the Hazelnut Go-First Farm Network in WI as a means to demonstrate at-scale hazelnut production to early-adopter and prospective growers while helping build regional supply chains.
- Conduct on-farm participatory research on the Go-First Farms to evaluate the UMHDI's experimental full-sibling germplasm and help optimize agronomic best management practices for the hedgerow production system.
- Increase prospective grower knowledge of hazelnut establishment, production, harvest, and post-harvest processing through field days at the Go First Farms, updates of the Hazelnuts 101 Fact Sheet Series, and publication of Go-First Farm profiles.