Soil Specialist Leading Farmers in Testing Climate-Smart Strategies

It’s not who you know, but what you know, the popular catchphrase goes. But for Biswanath Dari, Ph.D., Cooperative Extension natural resource specialist, soil scientist and researcher in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, it’s both who and what he knows.

Who Dari knows is his wife, a researcher at Emory University, who was working with a group of organizations, non-profit and academic institutions that snagged a historic $25 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture as part of its Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative.

What Dari and the 11 other partners in the group know will allow small and limited-resource vegetable farmers in the Southern Piedmont region to become involved in a project that will promote and increase the use of climate-smart vegetable farming practices, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase carbon sequestration and expand markets for the sale of climate-smart commodities.

“Everybody loves fresh, healthy, local foods,” Dari said. “But you can’t keep getting these vegetables from the soils without putting something back. You have to take care of the soil. And when we take care of the soil, it will take care of us in a very positive way.”

USDA is investing $3.1 billion in 141 national climate-smart projects, including “Quantifying the Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Increase Carbon Sequestration by Growing and Marketing Climate-Smart Commodities in the Southern Piedmont.” A&T is a partner in this project, along with N.C. State University, the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Clemson University, Emory University, Georgia Organics, the Soil Health Institute, the University of Georgia, the University of Tennessee Knoxville, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Virginia Association for Biological Farming and The Connect Group. Rodale Institute is the lead partner.

From the White House to state capitals, efforts are being made and funding is available to support climate-smart farming. And while farmers support the practices, there are some questions as to whether these climate-smart practices, such as using cover crops and not tilling the soil, reduce yield. Still others note that if every farmer practiced climate-smart methods, it still might not be enough to aid the environment and reduce global warming.

But most believe that farmers can and will play a role in helping to protect, replenish and nourish the soil.

Biswanath Dari, Ph.D., agriculture and natural resource specialist in Cooperative Extension at North Carolina A&T State University, conducts some soil testing in one of his designated research plots at the University Farm.

Soil plays a critical role in not only providing food and fiber, but also filtering water; feeding and hosting growing forests, crops and other plants; providing a home for numerous organisms, contributing to biodiversity; and supplying most of the antibiotics used to fight disease. Soil even helps to regulate the earth’s temperature, making it a key player in combating global warming.

Soil also cycles carbon and nitrogen in the form of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, the three major greenhouse gases from the agriculture sector that trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the planet.

As long as soil is healthy, it acts like a sponge, soaking up the carbon and nitrogen and storing them, making the soil more fertile for plants.

If the soil isn’t healthy, as a result of being over-planted, over-grazed or over-tilled, it cannot do its job. As a result, greenhouse gases increase and a farmer’s ability to use the soil to produce crops is diminished.

Helping farmers understand this process and working with them so they are using these sustainable farming practices helps all of us, Dari said.

“Most farmers know these things and are implementing many of these practices, but this gives them more incentive to do so and allows those of us in this project to build a data repository of lessons learned,” Dari said.

Dari and those in the Climate-Smart Southern Piedmont Project are recruiting 100 farmers to participate. The area runs from Alabama to Virginia, including much of Piedmont North Carolina. Both organic and conventional vegetable growers can participate and will get a cash stipend, and other non-cash incentives, for their support.

In turn, the farmers will agree to participate in the study for at least four years and provide team leaders access to their farmland; enter data, photos and videos into a database; make soil samples available; and farm with, and then without, crop rotation and cover crops.

The project team will monitor greenhouse gas emissions, soil health, economic impacts and the social barriers to using cover crops and no-tillage in their fields.

This information will help the farmers and provide the USDA with the data needed to develop climate-smart processes, methods and markets that benefit us all. Already, Dari has cover-crop, compost and no-till demonstration plots at the N.C. A&T University Farm. These regenerative practices will help the farmer while also reducing soil erosion, improving water quality, providing environmental protections and most importantly adding more carbon into the soil and reducing harmful greenhouse gases, Dari said.

He has used field days and other training opportunities to share his work with Cooperative Extension field staff and more than 100 farmers and growers who have attended these activities.

“None of this is rocket science, but all of these practices are helpful to enhancing soil health, especially in a small-farm set-up,” Dari said. “Knowing why these practices are recommended and helping more people put these practices into action is valuable to the farmer and valuable to all of us.

“Yes, we get to eat and have the other things the soil provides. But it also allows us to live and do so in a climate-smart way. So, my goal as a natural-resource specialist and soil scientist is to promote climate-smart practices and involve as many farmers as I can in growing their crops in a climate-smart/climate-resilient way, so that we can leave healthy soils for future generations.”