On-farm demonstrations will be established across the tri-state area to demonstrate the trialability of the new practices compared with prevailing practices. The long-term goal of CHEERS is to enable the transition of the prevailing agricultural economy to a circular bioeconomy, profitably, for all in the value chain. The increasing market demand for a carbon-based circular economy with commodities produced with lower environmental impact is allowing for a shift from incentivizing just yield to incentivizing sustainably produced commodities.
These demands can be leveraged to balance environmental benefits with economic de-risking to make climate adaptation in agricultural systems extend beyond short-lived monetary incentives-based adoption. To enable this, economic and environmental benefits of these systems must be demonstrated at scale, a local supply chain needs to mature, various tools for regionally relevant decision making must become accessible to the producer and the producer’s support system, and the community at large must develop a science-based understanding of the role of agriculture in climate change adaptation.
The Problem we are seeking to solve
Farmers are expected to readily shift management practices and adopt new smart agriculture system approaches without those advocating change fully understanding or acknowledging the numerous large and small barriers to adding winter cropping systems to their farm operations. These issues, among others, include: i.) unreliable availability regionally adapted seed, ii.) lack of infrastructure for integration of cattle grazing with row crops, iii.) lack of decision support systems that are crucial for dynamic climate-based decision making in the winter, iv.) updated knowledge on trade-offs for stakeholders along the value-chain for better decision-making, v.) potentially dated policies related to conservation agriculture incentives, vi.) inequitable leveraging of markets and opportunities. Implementing smart agriculture practices that entail farm diversification often results in the need to learn new skills, adjust time and labor management practices, obtain access to different equipment, obtain financial resources and manage numerous other upfront operational costs. To help farmers manage the challenges associated with adding new crops to their production system, project researchers and educators and collaborating farmers will experiment with ways to scale up managerially and economically to test the viability of a variety of winter cropping systems in the region. They will also identify approaches to overcome barriers and capitalize on opportunities related to winter cropping systems.
