Weeds are a key biotic constraint to farmers

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded the University of Maryland, College Park $8.265 million on July 1, 2026, under the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (CFDA 10.309) to integrate cover crops more effectively into weed management strategies for vegetable farmers. The award supports a five-year project running through June 30, 2031, with performance at College Park, Maryland.

The research compares cover cropping strategies for managing herbicide-resistant weeds, examines below-ground effects on weed populations, develops tactics applicable across multiple crop types, evaluates profitability of vegetable production using cover crops, and delivers new cover crop information to end-users. The project deploys drones and robots to support these objectives and addresses three SCRI focus areas: pest threat mitigation, production efficiency and profitability improvement, and new technology innovation. The program involves next-generation agricultural professionals across all project aspects and targets labor reduction to address specialty crop sector workforce constraints.

The University of Maryland, College Park, as the prime recipient, received sub-awards to three partner institutions. The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) received a sub-award on August 25, 2026, and Clemson University and the University of Florida each received sub-awards on August 24, 2026. All three sub-recipients are addressing the common objective of making cover cropping a more commonly used tool for integrated weed management programs in vegetable production. The assistance type is a project grant.

Notwithstanding, there has been a noteworthy increase in herbicide-resistant weeds due to practices that impose selective pressure on weed populations. We believe that cover crops (CCS) can be instrumental in helping solve this issue via greater inclusion into integrated weed management strategies. Thus, our goal is to more effectively incorporate CCS into weed management plans. We feel that this can be best accomplished by helping vegetable farmers realize their potential beyond weed suppression. As such, additional services such as CCS potential to cut input costs, contribute fertility, bioremediate soils and influence nematode counts will be examined. This project will also deploy drones and robots in support of our five main objectives which are to: 1) compare different cover cropping strategies for managing weeds, 2) determine CC's below ground effects on weeds, 3) develop cover cropping tactics to work across a broad range of crops, 4) evaluate the profitability of growing vegetables with CCS and 5) deliver new CC information to end-users. This project will also address three main scri focus areas and other USDA emphasized specialty crop sectors' needs: 1) address threats from pests, 2) improve production efficiency, productivity and long-term profitability, and 3) research new innovations and technology (drones and robots). In addition, the technology being researched can be used to reduce the need for manual labor which was requested by a number of specialty crop sectors. Moreover, the next generation of AG-professionals will be intrinsically involved in all project aspects.