Project Grant 20216801235897

The Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a $10 million Project Grant under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) federal grant program (CFDA #10.310) to Texas A&M Agrilife Research. The goal of the grant project is to intensify agricultural production in an environmentally sustainable way through the successful integration of regenerative agricultural practices in the Southern Great Plains of Texas and Oklahoma.

Texas A&M Agrilife Research will work with sub-awardees Oklahoma State University, West Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, Kansas State University, and the Soil Health Institute to evaluate a systems approach to regenerative agriculture across semi-arid ecoregions. The project aims to increase carbon sequestration, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigate climate change impacts, diversify producer income streams, conserve scarce water resources, and enhance rural economies through research, education, and outreach on practices like livestock grazing, cover cropping, and conservation tillage in cotton and wheat cropping systems. Findings will provide recommendations to increase agricultural sustainability, productivity and profitability on a per acre basis while reducing environmental impacts. The five-year project period began in September 2021.