Alabama NRCS Awards Conservation Innovation Grants

Auburn, Ala, July 11, 2007

Gary Kobylski, Alabama State Conservationist for Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), announced the award of $81,500 dollars to fund two state Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG). The award grantees are Auburn University and Tuskegee University.

"CIG accelerates development, transfer, and adoption of promising new technologies and approaches to some of Alabama’s most pressing natural resource concerns," says Kobylski. CIG enables NRCS to work with other entities to accelerate technology transfer. CIG requires a 50-50 match between the agency and the applicant.

The grant to Auburn University will be used to demonstrate tenable on-farm conservation vegetable production systems with high-residue cover crops that reduce soil erosion, improve soil productivity and quality, reduce energy costs, and promote farm profitability in Alabama. The concept will be demonstrated on Frank Randle’s vegetable farm located in Lee County. Four no-till conservation systems (elevated beds vs. flat culture) with high-residue cover crops (rye and rye/crimson clover mixture) will be compared to traditional production methods (tillage and incorporation of the cover crop) traditionally used by vegetable farmers in the state. The project director will be Joseph M. Kemble, Extension Vegetable Specialist and Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture.

The grant to Tuskegee University will be used to determine the feasibility of growing a summer annual (sorghum-sudangrass) with various applications of poultry litter under irrigated and non-irrigated conditions. The project will establish the quantity of hay produced under these conditions. The demonstration will provide livestock producers and forage growers with data of the amount of poultry litter needed under irrigated conditions. The six acre demonstration site will be in Union Town, Alabama, on soils of the Black Belt. The sorghum-sudangrass project will demonstrate to farmers/producers an effective way to include poultry litter and irrigation into their livestock production systems. As a result, farmers/producers will learn which rate of poultry litter and irrigation schedule to use during drought periods in the Black Belt counties. The principal investigator for the project will be Errol G. Rhoden, Professor of Agronomy, Department of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

Alabama also received two national multi-state CIG grants. Alabama Beef Council received a national multi-state grant to study clover. Clover demonstrations in perennial pastures of the Coastal Plain region will show producers effective ways to include clovers, and where feasible, new perennial clover cultivars into their grazing systems. As a result, producers will learn which cultivars work for their particular conditions, how to effectively establish the clovers, how to implement successful prescribed grazing techniques needed for clover longevity, how to successfully manage soil fertility, and the many benefits that clovers provide. NRCS will be able to add new information to the Technical Guide resulting in improved technical and financial assistance to clients. The clover grant will affect the states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. Heifer Project International, Inc. received a grant to train limited resource farmers to be trainers for their communities. Through hands-on, practical trainings conducted by Heifer, and with technical support from NRCS, the project will empower limited resource farmers in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma with the skills and tools needed to develop economically stable and environmentally sound livestock-based farming systems. The two national multi-state CIG grants totaled $328,982.

NRCS administers the CIG grants as a part of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. CIG benefits agricultural producers and consumers by providing more options and possibilities for environmental enhancement.

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