Project Overview
Commodities
- Agronomic: mustard
- Vegetables: cucurbits, eggplant, greens (leafy), okra, peppers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, turnips
Practices
- Crop Production: beekeeping, cover crops, fertigation, high tunnels or hoop houses, pollination, varieties and cultivars
- Education and Training: demonstration, technical assistance
- Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns
- Pest Management: mulching - plastic
- Sustainable Communities: partnerships, urban agriculture
Proposal abstract:
The UAPB SARE Training Program will emphasize educating extension associates, program aides, and mentor farmers on soil health with an emphasis on residue management, cover crops, minimum, reduced, no-till, and rotational grazing. The education and training will also involve the use of high tunnels for extending the growing season and the successful production of vegetables in high tunnels. The UAPB staff will also work with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to take advantage of their Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIC) and other conservation programs that provide funding to help install conservation practices that promote soil health. To promote the use of sustainable vegetable production practices, demonstrations will be conducted on-farm sites by the project staff.
Project objectives from proposal:
The objectives of this project are:
To educate UAPB Agricultural Professional and mentor farmers on the NRCS 5 principles of soil health: Maximize Soil Cover, Minimize Soil Disturbance, Maximize Biodiversity, Keep a Living Root, and Integrate Livestock.
To educate UAPB Agricultural Professional and mentor farmers on the economic suitability of vegetable crops for small farms and the successful production of vegetables in high tunnels.
To educate UAPB Agricultural Professionals and mentor farmers about NRCS conservation practices that providing special funding to help SDPs install soil health practices.
To educate UAPB Agricultural Professionals and mentor farmers about rotational grazing and how it affects soil health.
To provide agricultural professionals at Socially Disadvantaged Community Based Organization with sustainable agriculture educational material and information.
The UAPB Agricultural Professionals and mentor farmers will target socially disadvantaged, limited resource, and other under-served producers in Arkansas. A special effort will be made to identify row crop, vegetable crop, and livestock producers to provide them with sustainable agriculture education.