Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** climate change is increasingly…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** climate change is increasingly putting underrepresented minority farmers in a vulnerable position. Training future underrepresented farmers and policymakers in a multidisciplinary setting is crucial for the resilience of farming sector and our agricultural ecosystem. Under this challenging situtation, hispanic population remains underrepresented in college enrollment, degree completion and workforce in stem although the U.S. Job opportunities are growing in the fanh and science. Accounted for 22% of the U.S. Population, hispanic population account for ~17% bachelor's, 13% of master's, and 9% of doctoral degrees earned, and 8% in stem workforce. This trend holds in all the three collaborating HSI on this project. While equally enthusiastic about and aspire to stem careers, hispanic students are less confidence with stem courses. This is likely because hispanic students are mostly first-GEN college students from economically disadvantaged family, and thus lack the knowledge and resources to actively engage in stem related courses and experiential learnings. Our overall goal is to provide under-represented undergraduate and graduate students a comprehensive experimental learning opportunity in a multi-disciplinary setting that including economics, precision agriculture and remote sensing, soil science, and AI and big data. We will equip them with necessary tools to solve for socially, economically, and scientifically optimal solutions under the complex natural, institutional, economic, and technological system through exposing them to research process and engaging them into research analyzing relevant issues in our agriculture and food system. To achieve our goals, we will use a combination of 1) joint curriculum training and professional development workshops that fill in the gaps in existing curriculum, 2) research involvement on sustainable and AI agriculture technology adoption and evaluation, and 3) a 10-week summer internship for undergraduate students at one of the three collaborating institutions or USDA research labs in texas and florida.a total of at least 47 underrepresented students will be supported directly by this project including at least 5 associates, ~24 undergraduates, at least 18 graduate students including under-represented minority phds. More than 200 students from each of the collaborating institutions will benefit from the project activities. We will establish at least 6 farm demonstration plots and train at least 50 farmers each year through open houses, field days, workshops, and student presentations. The project will enhance long-term collaborative research, educational, and outreach efforts on climate resilient agriculture practices among the three collaborating hsis, with USDA research labs, and farmers in south texas and florida. The project activities thus support the educational needed areas on student experiential learning, curricular design and materials development, and student recruitment and retention in, the discipline of soil and water conservation and improvement, farm enhancement, and artificial intelligence and big data.