Collaborative Research: GCR: Scaling-Up Transformative Adaptation through Socio-Agroclimatology

This project addresses the grand challenge of achieving the large-scale, transformative adaptations in agriculture needed to enable the long-term resilience of rural farming communities in the U.S. The project will investigate the processes that influence farmers’ choices to adopt (or not) smart agriculture practices and the effects of those choices on land-atmosphere interactions and crop productivity. This approach has the potential to identify local and regional leverage points across agricultural systems that benefit small to medium U.S. farmers and rural economies. The goal of this project is to develop a new, convergence research approach of socio-agroclimatology, linking processes that influence farm management choices with land-atmosphere feedbacks. This will be accomplished through the identification of leverage points for systemic change, integration with coupled atmosphere-land surface and cropping system models, and experimental co-design with community partners. Co-designed research will explore the effectiveness of bridging farmer networks for scaling-up adoption of new agricultural practices. Potential thresholds in agricultural practice adoption leading to beneficial regional feedbacks will be analyzed by advancing the understanding and modeling of land-atmosphere interactions and crop productivity. Integration of these project elements will support development of a new agricultural decision-support tool, implementation of a convergence assessment of current and proposed decision options, and production of actionable recommendations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.