Project Search
Since its inception in 2004, CIG has funded hundreds of projects, boosting natural resource conservation while helping producers improve the health of their operations for the future. Use this tool to search for CIG projects based on any of the criteria listed below.
CIG projects from 2004-2009 may be missing information in the following categories: Resource Concern (specific), Conservation Practice, Production/Use.
Showing 121 - 130 of 1760 projects
Davidians Farm Market LLC
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MA
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2020
This CIG innovation trial integrates cover crops & reduced tillage into our conventional shaped-bed vegetable production in order to improve soil health, while reducing emissions and inputs. The proposed innovative trial is for a cropping system that uses a plastic mulch for vegetable crops on a shaped bed, with an overwintering clover cover crop between the vegetable rows throughout the whole year. The purchase of a new FORIGO stone burier allows us to establish shaped bed vegetable rows with only one tractor pass & no herbicides, while maintaining clover from the winter between vegetable rows, thus keeping soil intact in nearly half of the field. This cropping system will be compared to a conventionally tilled & shaped shaped-bed system that uses weed mats instead of cover crops between rows & involves seven or more passes to each row with a tractor with different equipment. Using a comprehensive soil health assessment from Cornell, with assistance from a soil conservationist, we will compare soil health metrics, soil moisture retention capacity, soil organic matter, & soil nutrient content, fuel, water, fertilizer, & herbicide use, weed suppression, & vegetable yields (pounds/acre) between the production systems. We anticipate that compared to conventional practices, the proposed trial will improve soil health, increase soil moisture & organic matter retention, and decrease fuel, water, fertilizer, & herbicide needs—while providing similar weed suppression and similar yields to conventional methods. The project will serve as a case study for the innovative integration of a new technology with soil health practices to improve soil health while maintaining yields & reducing external resource inputs, & will be shared widely through workshops & conferences in collaboration with NRCS & the Worcester County Conservation District.
Cornell University CCE Urban Soil Health
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NY
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2020
CCE seeks to investigate three management approaches for vegetable farmers with high organice matter soils: pH adjustment, cover cropping, and calibrating soil test results to account for bulk density. Location in NYC, Buffalo, and Penn Yan
Central State University
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OH
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2020
In this project, the team expects to apply the well-studied manure application practice in agriculture to hemp production, and evaluate and demonstrate the soil health and water quality benefits while maximizing crop yield.
Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association
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MA
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2020
Fruit quality has been identified as the most critical and urgent horticultural challenge facing the cranberry growers of Massachusetts. A major deterrent to fruit quality is cranberry fruit rot, a persistent challenge in north eastern cranberry cultivation from season to season, if left uncontrolled, crop losses in excess of 50% may result. Fruit rot, unlike the majority of plant diseases, is a disease complex associated with more than a dozen taxonomically diverse fungi.The University of Massachusetts at Amherst & the UMass Cranberry Station in Wareham will lead the scientific components of the project, deriving the study sites, monitoring, recording & correlating the information collected. The researchers will develop a correlation between weather, growing practices & fruit quality which will become the basis for understanding how to improve fruit quality. This research will be able to be easily understood & implemented by cranberry growers, helping them make better informed decisions. The result is expected to be an increase in fruit quality, more refined growing strategies & reduced chemical inputs, that they can use to better manage their crops.
Bowling Green State University
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OH
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2020
This project will explore the technical feasibility and commercial viability of using an innovative multi-species aquaponics system to convert nutrients in agricultural drainage systems into marketable products (e.g., tilapia, bait crayfish, and crops) while reducing nutrient discharge to waterways in the Western Lake Erie Basin.
American Farmland Trust
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MA
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2020
With crashing milk prices, rising land competition, climate change, & now the devastating impacts due to COVID-19, the future of agriculture in the northeast is in peril. To survive this &, future disasters, whether due to climate change or public health emergencies, agricultural industries across the spectrum must build resilience & improve longterm viability in part through the implementation of soil health management systems (SHMS). With improved soil health practices, Massachusetts farms can strengthen their financial standing, setting them up for greater stability & presence in our local food system. Leveraging data from American Farmland Trust’s (AFT) on-farm soil health demonstration (SHD) network, which includes four dairy & vegetable farms in Massachusetts, AFT will stimulate the adoption of cover crops & other soil health practices by women through the sharing of short-term soil, economic, & social changes that occur as the SHD farms transition to full SHMS. These examples will be shared & discussed with women farmers during three Soil Health Learning Circles, aimed at working with women landowners & women farmers including farmers of color, to improve access to resources & enable better stewardship & farmland protection. Following the Learning Circles, six in-depth profiles highlighting women farmers from across MA will be produced, capturing participants' stories of newly gained conservation knowledge or successful implementation of soil health practices. Additionally, in an effort to provide cover crop & no-till implementation education in a more technical & hands-on setting, we will also execute a soil-health demonstration field day highlighting on-farm soil health trials, & the use & operation of equipment such as a roller crimper, no-till seed drill, & a no-till vegetable transplanter.
Arkansas Land And Community Development
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AR
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2020
The use of drones for pest control management offers farmers innovated approaches for protecting their crops with reduced usage of chemicals. The main goal of this project is to develop a methodolgoy for agriculture pest management that incorporates drones as a major augmentation to traditional methods of pest management and is user friendly for vegetable producers.
Mid Atlantic 4R Nutrient Stewardship Association
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PA
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2020
This project seeks to demonstrate that nitrogen modeling programs can be used to quantify nitrogen contributions of soil health practices. This will enable farmers to account to these contributions in their nutrient management plans, allowing fo rreduces supplemental nitrogen application, reduced loss of nitrogen to surface and ground water, and reduced input costs.
Indian Land Tenure Foundation
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AZ, CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX
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2020
The goal of this project is to develop and pilot an operational web-based tool to assess and quantify the co-benefits of enhanced land-based carbon sequestration produced through ecosystem conservation an restoration activities on tribal lands.
MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY
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MS
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2020
The engineering of biochar for the purpose of mitigating agricultural nutrient runoff and moving to a field-scale application of this technology is innovative. Combining new biochar technology with slag, a known phosphorus-grabber, to improve existing conservation practices and demonstrate their combined effectiveness is also an improvement for nutrient management.