New article: Effects of irrigation scheduling approaches on soil moisture and vegetable production in the Northeastern U.S.A.

A multi-year collaboration between the University of Maine Agroecology Lab and University of Vermont Extension has led to a new publication titled “Effects of irrigation scheduling approaches on soil moisture and vegetable production in the Northeastern U.S.A.”, published in Agricultural Water Managment. The research reported upon in this manuscript includes a survey, several focus groups, and three years of field trials in two states. The goal of the research was to better understand when and how diversified vegetable producers in the Northeast can use different soil-water assessment approaches to “dial in” irrigation practices.

In brief, we compared several standard practices that farmers often use to schedule irrigation in diversified vegetable production: feeling the soil, using soil-water assessment technologies (granular matrix sensors and associated software), and timers. First we asked farmers about their preferred approaches, and what questions they had regarding irrigation scheduling technology. We then compared these approaches to plots that received no irrigation (though did receive ambient rainfall). Specifically, we measured yield, crop quality, nitrate concentrations in subsurface leachate, and total water use.

Our primary findings are that soil moisture sensors, which have been cited as the gold standard in water use efficiency for several decades, did not lead to better crop outcomes. However, using these sensors led to consistently desirable soil-water conditions, compared to the variability observed in the other treatments. The sensors would likely reduce environmental degradation due to nitrate leaching in agricultural systems. Conservation programs that support farmer use of soil-water monitoring could expand use of this approach to improve environmental outcomes.

Farmers indicated that the cost of cloud-based monitoring systems were a barrier to adopting tensiometer and/or granular matrix sensors, thought hand-held readers were considered a reasonable alternative. Farmers would be willing to subscribe to cloud-based systems if doing so resulted in yield increases. For this reason, these systems may remain useful for farmers of larger-scales, which small scale operations may have difficulty justifying the expense. Supplemental funding for soil-water monitoring systems through conservation grants would likely lead to wider adoption.

This research was supported through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program under Subaward no. LNE19-391R, as well as through Hatch Project no. ME0- 1022424 through the Maine Agricultural & Forest Experiment Station. We are grateful for additional support from the USDA Northeast Climate Hub.

The full manuscript is open-access. From this project, our group also published two fact sheets on soil-water monitoring and different systems and prices.

Graphical abstract created with BioRender.com

New article: Commoning climate change: Peer-to-peer social affinity in a multi-level commons

Sara Delaney, PhD student in the University of Maine agroecology lab, and co-authors have published a new manuscript entitled Commoning climate change: Peer-to-peer social affinity in a muti-level commons in Spire, the Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability.

In their paper, Delaney et al. propose that “the structure of climate governance is centered around effective social relationships.” They examine social dynamics related to climate governance on multiple levels, including individual, state, and multinational, and use compelling case studies to illustrate how these dynamics play out in each context. Peer-to-peer social affinity in a central concept in their analysis, which they define as “interactions based on mutual interest between equal-level actors; individual to individual, group to group, state to state, and nation to nation.”

Read the full article at https://umaine.edu/spire/2023/04/21/delaney-jackson-olsen-torres/

Figure 1 published in Delaney et al. (2023). Representation of a multi-level global commons. Global climate goals and policies are set collaboratively by stakeholders from many collective action groups. Nations follow global initiatives and work to set policies that give direction to their state and local organizations.  Many small collective action organizations made up of individuals manage local CPRs and take action to reduce GHG emissions. Organizations of similar size, power, and ethos collaborate creating accountability and peer-to-peer social affinity. Teal= global level; Light Blue= National/multinational level; Gray=regional/local level; People=individual level. Arrows represent social collaborations within the same levels of governance. Figure 1 is adapted from Beitl (2019).

UMaine researcher serves as expert witness at Congressional hearing on supporting farmers adapting for the future

Rachel Schattman’s testimony about how farmers can mitigate and plan for climate change comes just days after a federal report showed more than half of Maine is currently experiencing moderate drought conditions that may impact this year’s harvest of key crops like wild blueberries.

Washington, D.C. — A University of Maine researcher told a Congressional committee yesterday about successful efforts led by the state’s flagship to understand and support farmers to adopt sustainable practices that will make their small businesses and our nation’s food supply more resilient for the future. 

Rachel E. Schattman, an assistant professor of sustainable agriculture in the School of Food and Agriculture at UMaine, testified July 19 as an expert witness at a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Environment examining the role of farmers and ranchers in solving climate change and increasing food production.  

A former commercial farmer herself, Schattman conducts interdisciplinary research and provides technical assistance to help farms be more resilient in a changing climate while protecting natural resources.

She has studied farmers in the Northeast and Midwest to better understand what support they need to adopt environmentally friendly practices that protect natural resources and their bottom line. Informed by that research, last year she helped pilot a program with regional partners, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), that paired vegetable and small fruit growers and agricultural advisors to learn climate science and develop personalized farm adaptation plans and outreach materials to share with their peers.

 “Though there are many uncertainties associated with what the future holds, because of research that has already been conducted, we know enough right now to support farmers as they adapt to a changing climate, build resilience into their farms and anchor thriving U.S. agricultural industries that can provide essential rural jobs and feed our population and the world,” Schattman said in her prepared testimony. 

She urged Congress to support investment in sustainable agriculture and climate research and region-specific outreach like that happening at UMaine, and to consider incentivizing the transition to proven practices that enhance soil and water quality like nutrient management and rotating cover and cash crops to mitigate farmers’ risk.

“More and more often, farmers are taking note of drought, heat and shifts in seasonal temperatures, and all of these changes are leading these communities to realize that they cannot continue to farm in the same way as their predecessors,” Schattman explained, just days after a federal report showed more than half of Maine is currently experiencing moderate drought conditions.

She highlighted recent investment by Wyman’s, the largest retailer of wild blueberries in the United States, to establish the first-of-its-kind wild blueberry research and innovation center at UMaine to investigate the impact of increasing temperatures and changing precipitation on small fruit crop performance and health.

Schattman’s written testimony is available here and the full hearing can be viewed here. 

This is the second time in as many months that experts from Maine’s R1 research university have been invited to inform the work of Congress as expert hearing witnesses. In May, the university’s liaison to the forest products industry, Shane O’Neill, testified about workforce development and innovation in that sector at the invitation of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee’s Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee. 

“The University of Maine is a world-class, R1 research university where faculty and students work together to create new knowledge and innovations to solve our state’s and the world’s most pressing problems — including adapting to and mitigating climate change,” said President Joan Ferrini-Mundy, who is also vice chancellor for research and innovation for the University of Maine System. 

“UMaine researchers are called upon by policymakers from the State House to the U.S. Capitol and by communities and companies in between, and that is a testament to their terrific work and decades of public and private partnership and investment. We are proud that our university is such a vital public asset, and look forward to only increasing our impact on Maine and beyond in the years to come.”

Contact: Margaret Nagle, nagle@maine.edu

National Food Access and COVID Research Team publishes two Maine research briefs

University of Maine researchers, Rachel Schattman and Kate Yerxa, have released initial findings from research conducted as part of the National Food Access and COVID Research Team (NFACT). NFACT is a national collaboration of researchers committed to rigorous, comparative, and timely food access research during the time of COVID-19. We do this through collaborative, open access research that prioritizes communication to key decision-makers while building our scientific understanding of food system behaviors and policies.

Through surveying Maine residents in the months after COVID-19 emerged in Maine (March 2020), Schattman and Yerxa found that COVID-19 has increased the incidence of food insecurity for survey respondents of all ages, but that younger respondents (ages 18-24) were more likely than older adults to skip meals, eat less, or go hungry. Meanwhile, adults ages 35-54 were more likely to report traveling to food pantries or federal food assistance program offices to deal with food insecurity. Respondents reported dietary changes following the onset of COVID-19, including a reduction in consumption of red and processed meats.

These findings and more have been summarized in two research briefs, which are now available:

• Shopping, Eating, and Dietary Behaviors of Maine Adults as a Result of COVID-19

• Food Insecurity and Use of Food Assistance Programs and Food Pantries of Maine Adults as a Result of COVID-19

The Maine NFACT survey was repeated in spring 2021, and will be reissued in coming months. This will allow Schattman, Yerxa, and their collaborators to examine changes in food insecurity throughout the pandemic.

Funding for this project was provided by the University of Maine School of Food and Agriculture, the George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, the Maine Food and Agriculture Center Integrated Research Extension Program, and the University of Vermont Gund Institute for the Environment.

To learn more visit https://www.nfactresearch.org/

Maine drought and agriculture report released

Widespread drought in 2020 affected agriculture across the state of Maine. In response, the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) activated permissions for emergency haying and grazing of acres normally set aside through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). In September, FSA additionally designated Aroostook County (home to Maine’s potato industry) as a primary national disaster area, opening the door for producers in Aroostook, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, and Washington Counties who were negatively impacted by the drought to access federal emergency loans. 

This week, the University of Maine School of Food and Agriculture, in cooperation with University of Maine Extensions and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), released a report documenting the effects of the 2020 drought on Maine agriculture. This report documents the experiences of agricultural producers from a variety of sectors, specifically their experiences with drought and its effects in 2020 and the five years prior.

Key findings

1. The majority of survey respondents reported that, in most years, they typically have enough water to meet their farm’s needs. However, only one-third reported that this was true in 2020. In fact, over half reported that they did not have sufficient water to meet their farms’ needs during the 2020 drought.

2. All producer groups who responded to this survey reported higher than normal losses in 2020. Lowbush blueberry producers were hardest hit, both in terms of percentage of producers reporting losses, and the percentage of crop yield lost.

3. Following the 2020 drought, a notable proportion of respondents indicated an interest in expanding their water use for various purposes, including for irrigation, milk processing, and livestock watering. Other drought adaptation approaches reported by farmers include mulching, cover cropping, changing the timing of key management activities, using high tunnels, greenhouses, or other covered structures, and changing crop or variety types in response to drier conditions. 

4. There are many respondents who use one water source for both household and farm purposes. Reduced water supply during times of drought not only affects farm operations, but also basic household functions.

5. To improve water access, respondents are interested in investing in soil health, irrigation, building additional ponds, expanding electrical access for pumps, and drilling additional wells. There is a need for additional information, technical assistance, and financial assistance for practices such as water quality assessments, soil moisture monitoring, navigating surface and groundwater regulations, measuring the volume of water needed for agricultural purposes, and ensuring sufficient water access to meet production needs. There is an opportunity to connect more farmers with Extension, other services providers, and USDA-NRCS and FSA programs to further develop on-farm practices that support soil health and efficient water use on farms, and make financial support available to farmers when needed (i.e., disaster assistance, crop insurance).

6. Changing weather patterns associated with climate change are having negative effects on Maine agriculture. Respondents report concern about reduced crop quality, poor crop and cover crop germination, and increased labor needs associated with irrigation. Respondents also noted that extreme weather events make it more difficult to access their fields, increases erosion and soil loss, and have negative effects on crew health and wellbeing. An overwhelming majority of respondents reported concern about climate change in general and changing weather patterns. 

Find the full report here.

Food insecurity before and since COVID-19

The University of Maine has partnered with the National Food Access and COVID Research Team (NFACT) to document the effects of COVID-19 on food insecurity in Maine and across the United States. Project collaborators include Dr. Rachel Schattman (lead of the UMaine Agroecology Lab) and Kate Yerxa (Associate Extension Professor and EFNEP Coordinator with UMaine Extension).

The NFACT coalition has conducted common surveys across 18-study sites in more than 15-states and nationally. Today, the coalition is releasing the first collective policy brief, summarizing data from more than 26,000 respondents, across 22 separate surveys in these sites over the past year.  Despite different geographic and social contexts, the coalition finds very similar results in nearly all sites. These findings included higher prevalence of food insecurity since COVID-19, and higher prevalence of food insecurity than the general population for BIPOC respondents, households with children, and those experiencing a job disruption (furlough, job loss, or reduced hours). The new brief is now available here.

In coming months, Schattman and Yerxa will release a series of research briefs detailing the results of the Maine NFACT study. Initial results show that food insecurity in Maine has increased since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, 25.2% of survey respondents report experiencing food insecurity before the pandemic began, and 34.1% reported experiencing food insecurity since. Among BIPOC Maine residents, this trend was even more concerning: 46.2% of BIPOC respondents reported food insecurity before and 56.4% reported food insecurity since the pandemic started. Households with children under the age of 18 years also reported food insecurity at higher rates than the general population: 44.3% of respondents with children in the household reported food insecurity before and 52.6% since the beginning of COVID-19. Forty-five percent of respondents who reported job disruptions also reported being food insecure in 2020, with those who experienced job lost being most affected.

Schattman and Yerxa are partnering with colleagues at the University of Vermont to repeat the NFACT survey in both Maine and Vermont, allowing the team to track the effects of COVID-19 on food insecurity over time. This work is being supported by an award from the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for the Environment Catalyst Program, and is led by Dr. Meredith Niles. Collaborators include Drs. Jennifer Laurent, Emily Belarmino, Farryl Bertmann, Scott Merrill, Eric Clark, and Ph.D. student Sam Bliss.