Data Is Key to Sorghum Producers Climate-Smart Commodities Grant

Last year, the National Sorghum Producers Association received a USDA climate-smart commodities grant, and NSP Executive Director, Tim Lust says they now have a framework in place and have the first US farmers signed up on a pilot basis to farm under the grant program. He says documentation and data collection is key under this grant.

“Moving to you know, a deeper level of data collection scope three is what some refer to it as of individual farmer level data collection.”

Lust says there are 17 practices that are USDA approved under the grant and they vary depending on geographic locations.

“Might be more traditional a lot, you know, just no to moving from tillage to no-tillage. And then, you know, one of the big ones that we've worked on in the last couple of farm meals is resource-conserving crop rotation, and which really encourages and incentivize growers to move into those crop rotations in those areas where perhaps they haven't had that as a standard part of their operations, then, you know, all the way to other options that may work in some areas but won't work in other areas either related to cover crops or fertility management.”

Rather than focusing on soil carbon sequestration alone, the project will create a pathway for the impact of all practices to be quantified, tracked, and verified with the intent to monetize these practices like a tangible commodity with an initial focus on low carbon fuel markets.