How Can I Become More Confident in Identifying Conservation Practices That Will Positively Impact Crop Productivity and Related Environmental Factors on My Farm?
Quantifying Conservation Benefits for Illinois Soybean Farmers: Extrapolating On-Farm Trial Measurements to Commercial Farm Fields Through Validated Algorithms and Methods
This project aims to quantify the benefits of adopting conservation management practices at the field level. This includes how various conservation practices impact crop productivity, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, soil carbon sequestration and nitrogen (N) leaching/water quality across the various soybean regions in Illinois. Project output will include reports farmers can use to inform their management decisions and help prepare them to take advantage of government conservation programs and/or industry ecosystem markets, like carbon credit programs.
WHY THIS RESEARCH IS IMPORTANT
- Through this research, the goal is to translate on-farm trial measurement results into quantifiable guidance that farmers can use as they make management decisions for their commercial fields.
HOW THIS RESEARCH BENEFITS THE FARMER
- By generating quantitative estimations of how conservation management practices impact crop productivity, GHG emissions, soil carbon sequestration, and nitrogen leaching, farmers will be equipped with field-level, yet scientific, data they can use in their decision-making process.
- The resulting data will also help farmers determine how they can engage in the developing ecosystem marketplaces, such as a carbon credit market.
RESEARCH TEAM
- Dr. Andrew Margenot, Associate Professor, UIUC
- Ziyi Li, PhD Student, UIUC
TRIAL LOCATIONS
- Leveraging existing ISA-funded research sites through Dr. Andrew Margenot’s project, Benchmarking and integrating soil health, water quality and climate-smart footprints of Illinois soybeans
- 40 farm fields across Illinois to be recruited in 2024
- If you are a farmer or landowner interested in participating in this study, please email Dr. Kaiyu Guan
About the Lead Researchers
Dr. Kaiyu Guan
Associate Professor
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
609-647-1368
kaiyug@illinois.edu
Dr. Bin Peng
Assistant Professor
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
217-974-5389
binpeng@illinois.edu
ARE YOU A FARMER OR ADVISOR?
If you’re a farmer or advisor, we invite you to take our Soybean Production Concerns Survey linked below to help guide future ISA research efforts. We also encourage you to contact us below with specific production challenge research ideas.
ARE YOU A RESEARCHER?
If you’re a researcher interested in working with ISA on a project, we encourage you to contact us with your ideas. The RFP will open in early March. Contact us below to be added to the mailing list for more information.
and then