Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** rapid and uncontrolled extraction…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** rapid and uncontrolled extraction of groundwater from the ogallala aquifer and poor water-conserving agricultural practices are causing significant challenges to sustain the agricultural industry in the southwest high plains. To sustain crop cultivation in regions limited by water, adopting grain sorghum and cotton rotation is proposed to be a pragmatic option compared to continuous cotton. However, a systematic analysis of the sorghum-cotton rotation considering IT'simplication on soil health associated microbial (bacteria and fungi) changes, farm productivity and economic outcomes, particularly connecting the findings from research farm to the producer field has not been conducted. To facilitate producers to make well-informed decisions, the project objectives are designed to (i) quantify changes in crop yield and quality with a sorghum-cotton rotation under different irrigation levels, management practices and soil types; (II) explore soil microbial changes and associated impact on soil health and crop productivity in a sorghum-cotton rotation compared to continuous cotton and (III) determine the economic outcomes and environmental sustainability of a sorghum-cotton rotation in the target region. In addition, the project will leverage tawc (texas alliance for water conservation), a long term producer-teaching-producer demonstration program in operation for 17 years, to disseminate project findings to a wider group of stakeholders in the high plains. The comparative assessment of findings from the research farm and producer fields will facilitate developing an economically feasible pathway for incorporating sorghum-cotton rotation in water-limited environments of the southwest high plains.