ENVIRONMENTALLY SMART: N.C. A&T, A PARTNER IN USDA'S $2.8 BILLION CLIMATE-SMART COMMODITIES PROJECTS.

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University is participating in two major projects to reduce greenhouse gases and improve climate-resilient agriculture production as part of the U.S. Department of Agricultures major new Partnerships for ClimateSmart Commodities.

Biswanath Dari, Ph.D., an agriculture and natural resources specialist with Cooperative Extension at N.C. A&T, is working with organic and conventional vegetable growers in North Carolina and four other Southern states to reduce carbon emissions and increase carbon sequestration in the soil.

Arnab Bhowmik, Ph.D., an assistant professor of soil science in A&T's College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, will work with a project to provide technical and financial assistance to more than 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers across the United States.

"We're in the mix with some very large institutions and some very large projects. Were holding our own," says CAES Dean Mohamed Ahmedna, Ph.D. "They're coming to us and we're capitalizing."

USDA announced in September 2022 that it will invest up to $2.8 billion to 70 projects in the first round of funding in its Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program. USDA said it will announce a second round of projects later this year.

The federal agency said it expects these climate-smart projects to expand markets and revenue streams for commodity producers at more than 50,000 farms spanning more than 20 million acres and sequester the equivalent of 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Multiple historically Black universities are among the partners on these USDA-funded projects.

Dari, a soil scientist by training, will work with small-scale and underserved vegetable growers in five states in the Southern Piedmont to improve sustainable crop production by adopting climate-responsive agricultural practices. He will help identify social and economic barriers that prevent these farmers from adopting climate-smart practices and provide growers with information and technical assistance.

"Climate change is happening, and we cannot deny it," Dari says. "It'll be worse and worse if we do not take some steps now to modify its effects."

Dari said he plans to do multiple on-farm demonstrations at the N.C. A&T University Farm and at farms around the region to show the value of using cover crops, no-till techniques and other approaches to sequester carbon in the soil--a key tactic for reducing greenhouse gas emissions--and improve soil...