Conservation Agriculture SWCD Project

Summary:

With over a quarter of global carbon dioxide emissions attributed to agricultural products, addressing their environmental impact is crucial. Conventional farming practices, relying on fossil fuels, pesticides, antibiotics, and synthetic fertilizers, compromise natural resources. Therefore, conservation agriculture, encompassing strategies like drainage recycling, cover crops, and conservation tillage, emerges as a potential solution to mitigate the adverse effects of traditional farming and enhance sustainability. Despite the evident benefits of conservation methods, some farmers hesitate to adopt them. This project partnered with the Tippecanoe Soil Water Conservation District to create informational videos based on conservation agriculture practices. Our goal is to film a series of short-form informational videos on agricultural conservation practices common to the Tippecanoe County area including conservation tillage, cover crops, drainage water recycling, and raised beds. The videos are designed to inform our local farmers of the positive impacts of such practices and how implementation might occur. We hope that this is a good step for helping farmers to better understand and support implementing conservation agriculture practices. We would like to see more outreach being done to teach people of these practices including hosting field days, educational workshops, and producing supplemental material based on the information in our videos.

FINAL REPORT