University of Arkansas at Monticello hosts USDA official; announces $3.7 million grant

By Ryan McGeeney
U of A System Division of Agriculture 

HUMPHREY, Ark. — Researchers and administrators with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture hosted a visiting official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture last Friday, highlighting projects that have garnered special federal funding in support of climate-smart initiatives.

BOTTOMLANDS — USDA Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment Homer Wilkes, center, visits with Division of Agriculture faculty at a research site in Humphrey, Arkansas. Wilkes visited the site on Dec. 16 to announce a $3.7 million grant for research in the Southern Bottomland Region. (Division of Agriculture photo.)

Homer Wilkes, USDA Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment, visited Five Oaks Ag Education and Research Center in Humphrey, located in central Arkansas. During the visit, Wilkes announced funding for Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities projects, which includes about $3.7 million for an Arkansas-based project aimed at benefitting underserved landowners in the Southern Bottomland Region.

Wilkes noted that competition for the grants had been fierce, with more than 1,000 applications.

Nana Tian, an assistant professor of natural resources economics and policy with the University of Arkansas at Monticello, developed the winning grant proposal and is primary investigator on the project. She was on hand to discuss aspects of the project, which incorporates hardwood restoration in the Arkansas Delta.  

“Restoring bottomland hardwood forests is considered a viable climate-smart agricultural/forestry practice,” Tian said. “Small and underserved family landowners play a critical role in implementing this practice, but they face more barriers to adopting them than other landowners.

“This project aims to plant 500 to 600 acres of oak forests in the agriculturally dominant floodplain of the Red River Valley of southwestern Arkansas, the Ouachita River Valley of south-central Arkansas and the Bayou Meto Watershed in eastern Arkansas,” she said. “The project will also quantify and demonstrate the ecological and economic benefits of bottomland hardwood forest restoration on working lands and help landowners manage the plantations and market climate-smart commodities.”

Tian is also a researcher for the Arkansas Forest Resources Center, a partnership between UAM and the Division of Agriculture, through the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

Michael Blazier, director of the Arkansas Forestry Center and dean of UAM’s College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources, said that the grant, which will fund five years of research and outreach efforts, will allow UAM and other cooperating institutions to work synergistically to bring ideas “from research to practice.”

“Long story short, it ties together so many great resources in terms of expertise and long-standing research and outreach efforts, and ties it all together to integrate economics, ecology and outreach,” Blazier said. He said Tian’s project will draw from efforts of the Arkansas Forest Resources Center, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Texas A&M University. 

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu/. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.

Arkansas agriculture connected to $2.8B USDA Climate-Smart Commodities initiative

By Mary Hightower
U of A System Division of Agriculture

HUMNOKE, Ark. — Arkansas has connections to several projects being funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s $2.8 billion Climate-Smart Commodities program aimed at reducing greenhouse gases, improving carbon storage and developing new revenue streams for small and underserved farmers.

USDA on Sept. 14 unveiled the 70 projects it selected from among 450 applications. Two days later, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was at Isbell Farms in Humnoke to discuss the initiative, with some 200 people in the audience.

From left, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Jude Kearney of Winrock International and Scott Manley of Ducks Unlimited, listen as Deacue Fields, head of the U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture speaks about the organization's role in USDA's climate-smart projects. Taken Sept. 16, 2022, at Isbell Farms in Humnoke, Arkansas. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Mary Hightower)

The Arkansas projects — which involve scores of private and public partners — include rice, beef and cotton, with work in greenhouse gas emissions monitoring, carbon sequestration and regenerative practices. All of the projects are expected to provide direct benefits to production agriculture, including for small and underserved producers, USDA said.

Vilsack said the initiative has projects in all 50 states and he expected some 50,000 farmers and more than 20 million acres to be involved.

“It’s going to create new opportunities for farmers and improve income,” he said. “It’s going to create a set of partnerships and collaboration that’s going to continue way beyond this particular project. It’s going to help underserved producers get a leg up. It’s going to create an opportunity for the U.S. to be in a leadership position internationally.”

Deacue Fields, head of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, was among those invited to speak on a panel with Vilsack. He said the Division of Agriculture will bring the strength of its research abilities to projects in which it’s involved.

“From the Division of Agriculture’s point, for us, this is a big deal. Rice has always been a point of pride for us in the division. We invest a lot in it,” Fields said. “We are going throughout all these projects making sure we provide the science behind it and make sure we can validate what’s good.”

The division’s Cooperative Extension Service, which provides educational outreach to Arkansas farmers, families and communities, was also named in one of the projects.

Benjamin Runkle, associate professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas, has researched greenhouse gas emissions in rice at Isbell Farms since 2015. He and his team set up an example of their monitoring equipment for the event.

“The new project in USDA’s Climate-Smart Commodities program, led by USA Rice, is implementing real change across 400,000 acres and that strategy is in part based on the work we have done on the Isbell Farm and other farms in the state,” Runkle said. “Our team has the role of helping create consistent standards for data collection and guidance for the project’s implementation and create a research-based estimate of the greenhouse gas emissions reduced as a direct result of this project.” 

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.