The Regents of the University of Minnesota was awarded a $649,966 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program. The University will compare the resilience of corn to soil water deficits or excesses among five cropping systems differing in rotational diversity across three years and three locations in Minnesota. It will project yield variation in these systems over years under various climate change scenarios using crop modeling and experimental data from 18 total site-years. The University will also predict the extent to which adoption of potentially more resilient systems may be constrained by economics, including limited demand for minor crops. The University will leverage model-based simulations to explore mechanistic links between crop and yield responses in the context of experimental results and plausible future climate scenarios. It will conduct economic analysis to assess the current profitability of the five diversified cropping systems and how profitability may change if a system is widely adopted. The research is intended to advance understanding of the effect of diversification on corn resilience and yield stability under variable soil, weather, and management conditions. The project period is from June 1, 2023 to May 31, 2026.
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