Kansas State University was recently awarded a $50 million grant that will draw upon research from around the world that can also help High Plains producers who deal with extreme weather events, drought and climate challenges.
The funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development can be deployed over multiple years.
Vara Prasad (pictured above), lab director of Climate Resilient Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab, said Kansas is the right place at the right time. In the center of the country, its rainfall varies substantially in western vs eastern Kansas. The state’s western agricultural economy has an interconnected relationship with a vast, but declining Ogallala Aquifer, where feed grains support beef and dairy sectors.
Prasad said an important goal is to have crops that can efficiently use water and with proper genotypes can stretch limited water availability.
In the High Plains, resilience might best be built with diversification. Fall-planted crops are limited to winter wheat and, in some regions, canola. Spring-planted crops can include corn sorghum, soybeans and, in some regions, cotton.
The water requirements for sorghum are less than corn, but production is less under irrigated conditions. However, with water depletion, there are opportunities for sorghum and millet, and that will mean more research is needed, Prasad said.
Sorghum and millet are efficient crops and can be used for food, biofuels and livestock feed, he said.
“There are a lot of crops that could be grown in Kansas and the Midwestern region, but we have to research to find the right ones and the right combinations,” he said.
In the High Plains, farmers grow crops that ultimately are fed to livestock, and they have some diversification opportunities for other crops besides corn. Meanwhile, wheat is the primary crop grown for human consumption, he said, and there are future opportunities for other crops for human consumption, including pearl millet and sorghum, both non-GMO crops that are already eaten in foreign countries. Also, rice is grown on limited acres in the south.
“Having more options beyond wheat and rice would be beneficial,” Prasad said.
Global food security was important to scientist Norman Borlaug, who famously said, “We can’t build world peace on empty stomachs and human misery.” Studies say that if a child does not receive adequate nutrition the first 1,000 days from conception to his or her second birthday, brain development and overall health is severely impacted.
K-State will lead a project with partners in eight countries: Cambodia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Senegal, Ghana, Guatemala and Honduras. Prasad said work in these countries will serve as “test beds” for discoveries that can be applied around the world, including Kansas and the United States.
Much work is ahead, and Prasad is encouraged because those countries have a long-term goal of being self-reliant, and that means relying less on food aid from other countries and building their own infrastructure. That takes a commitment to research, education and outreach to farmers in those countries.
Why is an important question to ask
Trade interruptions, whether from China, Black Sea or the European Union, are much more common than 10 to 15 years ago, and it also impacts the U.S. and farmers.
“We are more dependent on grain trade. We import a lot and export a lot. It is very critical for sorghum and soybeans because we export a lot of what we grow to Asian countries,” Prasad said, noting that trade impacts farm income.
Another reason Prasad likes the project is that High Plains farmers can also benefit from the research. Extremes in weather, whether warmer summers or colder winter temperatures, present challenges to agronomists and seed scientists.
“We often talk about flowering and seed production when it comes to yields, and they are extremely important, but also associated with yields is pests and diseases,” Prasad said.
High humidity and insect pressure in the growing season also impact Kansas producers.
“We are getting new, emerging pests and diseases that we have not seen in the past 20 to 30 years,” he said.
An international program provides access to international germplasms and other research.
One example he gave was sugarcane aphids that were devastating to sorghum production a decade ago.
Today, thanks to research that drew upon multiple resources, the crop is much better protected.
A story worth telling
Prasad said the initiative to improve agricultural research has been a successful cornerstone in the United States. From 1863, with the Morrill Act, the land-grant system has been a difference-maker in global food security. In the case of K-State, it has provided high quality research that is delivered to farmers through an Extension system.
In his home country, Prasad said India successfully used the K-State blueprint of the land-grant system at agricultural universities, and that has meant food security to a country where 60 years ago it did not seem possible.
About the grant
The university was selected as the management entity for the Climate Resilient Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab, or CRSIIL, as part of USAID’s Feed the Future program, with funding of up to $50 million over a five-year period that expires in 2029.
Feed the Future Deputy Coordinator for Development Dina Esposito announced the award during the recent World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa.
“The Climate Resilient Sustainable Intensification lab led by Kansas State University will conduct research to develop and adapt technologies that increase agricultural productivity on less land with fewer environmental tradeoffs,” she said.
Prasad, who is also a university distinguished professor and the R.O. Kruse endowed professor in K-State’s agronomy department, said the new project continues the work managed during the past 10 years by K-State’s Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab, a $75 million project that he also led. The new project, he said, includes an emphasis on climate resilience in crops.
Sustainable intensification is a term that represents researchers’ work to develop methods and technologies that increase agricultural yields without negative environmental impacts, or cultivating more land.
Prasad said CRSIIL’s work focuses on six areas:
• Climate adaptation, mitigation and resilience
• Improved use of resources and input use efficiency
• Soil fertility management and soil health
• Ecological intensification and nature-positive solutions
• A circular bio-economy and use of renewables
• Developing digital tools for effective decision-making
Dave Bergmeier can be reached at 620-227-1822 or [email protected].