UTA harvests first climate-smart soybean crop

Thursday, Sep 12, 2024 • Katherine Egan Bennett : contact

UT Arlington biologists, working with underserved farmers in South Texas, have harvested their first crop of climate-smart soybeans. This harvest is part of a four-and-a-half-year, $5 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to test whether climate-smart agricultural practices can reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) responsible for climate change—including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—while simultaneously increasing crop production.

“We are the first to harvest climate-smart soybeans in this program, in part because of the earlier growing season in South Texas,” said Woo-Suk Chang, professor of biology at UTA and principal investigator on the USDA grant. “Most people don’t realize it, but farming activities make up about 10% of GHG emissions. We’re hoping to help the agriculture industry change that.”

As part of the project, researchers from UTA, Texas A&M AgriLife, Tarleton State University, and the University of Missouri collaborated with 14 farmers across Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri to implement five climate-smart agricultural practices, including:

• No-till agriculture: Conventional tillage, which typically involves intensive soil disturbance, can result in nutrient loss and the release of carbon from the ground. To positively impact soil health, the researchers are encouraging farmers to adopt no-till planting strategies to preserve carbon storage.
• Cover crops: Growing different vegetation during the winter, known as cover crops, can help improve the nutrients in the soil. Soil scientists are experimenting with various cover-crop mixtures to see which ones are most effective at improving soil health.
• Crop rotation: Alternating the crops grown each season can help keep nutrients in the soil and prevent erosion. Researchers are testing the best crop rotation strategies for climate-tolerant soybeans (i.e., drought-tolerant and flood-tolerant cultivars) that have been developed to handle extreme weather events.
• Bio-inoculants: Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi can be introduced to the soil to help naturally fertilize it while increasing plant resistance to insects, disease, and extreme weather. Researchers in the trial are testing whether a drought-tolerant nitrogen-fixing inoculant developed by the Chang Lab can increase crop yields while reducing GHG emissions.
• Biochar: Biochar is a type of black carbon produced by the partial burning of organic waste like wood chips and manure. Scientists are studying how adding biochar to the soil can help retain water and trap GHGs in the soil, preventing their release into the atmosphere. The first climate-smart soybeans were harvested from the fields where biochar had been applied. “Biochar would play a leading role in enhancing agricultural and environmental sustainability with climate change mitigation in soybean fields,” said Eunsung Kan, professor of biological and agricultural engineering at Texas A&M AgriLife.

As the rest of the farmers in the project harvest their crops this fall, the UTA climate-smart team will evaluate the reduction of GHG emissions and potential yield increases due to these agricultural practices. Additionally, they will use a portable gas analyzer to measure and monitor if the test farms were successful in reducing the levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.

Another goal of the USDA Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities program is to develop a market for these products. If this and other pilot projects growing climate-smart commodities prove successful, the next step will involve creating a market through outreach and advertising for climate-smart agricultural products. The UTA team has been collaborating with Texas Valley Grain to establish a climate-smart market in South Texas, with the potential to export these products to Mexico.

“Just as consumers are willing to pay extra for organically grown products, we hope to create a marketplace where they will have a choice to support underserved farmers whose practices help reduce GHG emissions,” said Andrew Scott, an agricultural consultant and soybean expert in South Texas. “We’re already seeing this trend in the energy market where consumers have a choice to select plans where much of the electricity comes from wind or solar. Our goal is to offer a similar choice when it comes to purchasing commodities.”