From the ground up: Educating Cooperative Extension and NRCS about agricultural technologies to enhance soil health

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Animal Production: grazing management, manure management, range improvement, rangeland/pasture management
• Crop Production: fertilizers, no-till, pollinator habitat, pollinator health
• Education and Training: extension, networking, participatory research, workshop
• Natural Resources/Environment: carbon sequestration, habitat enhancement, soil stabilization
• Pest Management: mulches - general
• Soil Management: soil microbiology

Growing evidence shows that enhancing soil health can provide a variety of environmental and economic services to managers on working landscapes. However, widespread integration of practices that enhance soil health in rangeland systems is slow, and in some cases, non-existent. Education and encouragement for adoption of these approaches are critical for the wellbeing and economic stability of producers, and for the health of the people who depend on them. In order for producers to employ novel strategies to enhance soil health, they need information about basic soil science, strategies to enhance soil health, and evidence demonstrating the economic or environmental benefits of adopting or modifying existing agricultural techniques in order to enhance carbon sequestration. This type of information is typically accessed through both Cooperative Extension (CE) and the NRCS. In order to provide CE and NRCS with the resources needed to inform producers about soil health and agricultural techniques that involve direct or indirect enhancement of soil health, we deployed workshops that covered a variety of topics related to soil science; soil health in terms of markets and policy; and agricultural approaches for increasing soil health that are scientifically sound and logistically and financially feasible. The training enabled CE and NRCS to effectively educate clientele on agricultural technologies to enhance soil health and agricultural productivity. We also created a webinar that can be used for training by CE and NRCS personnel across the Southwest. Sustainable cultivation, maintenance, and conservation of soil health not only improves soil conditions, but also enhances the conditions for plant and wildlife habitat. Having access to CE and NRCS personnel who are knowledgeable about the design and implementation of approaches that enhance soil health will provide producers with the tools they need to enhance their quality of life.

Objective 1: Provide training for UACE and the NRCS on topics of stable soil carbon, soil health, related agriculture markets and policy, and agricultural technologies to enhance soil health. We initially deployed four workshops across two years in the state of Arizona. Workshop speakers provided a comprehensive package of soil health information, from basic science overviews to methods for assessing soil health across rangeland systems to techniques for mitigating soil degradation and enhancing soil health. We a majority of the CE and NRCS personnel in AZ working in relevant areas (i.e. livestock, rangelands, natural resources, weeds, climate change, master gardeners) participated in our workshops. The broad geographic range of the workshops  encouraged attendance by CE and NRCS personnel. Training a large breadth of CE and NRCS staff promotes/encourages widespread transfer of knowledge to producers, in addition to ensuring a long-standing discussion about drought-relevant agricultural practices.

Due to the popularity o the workshops, we received many requests for more workshops! As such, we requested and were provided a one year no cost extension. As a result, we were able to deploy nine more workshops in six different locations around the state in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders including: Rancher Heritage Alliance, Southwest Agroforestry Action Network, Common Ground, Arizona Institute for Resilience, Strategic Habitat Enhancements, Maricopa County Parks and Rec and the Society for Ecological Restoration, Southwest Chapter.

Objective 2: Develop a webinar. Training of CE and NRCS in the topics of soil health and agricultural approaches to maintain and enhance soil health is necessary to address increasing interests of Southwestern rangeland stakeholders. To address this need, we created a webinar that includes workshop presentations for the free use by CE and NRCS personnel nationwide. The webinar is available in the Gornish Lab YouTube channel.