AgriLife Research-led Cotton Belt sustainability effort gains momentum

Date:11-22-2024

Cover crops are going into the ground and protocols are being written for a Texas A&M AgriLife Research-led project designed to help producers across the Cotton Belt improve efficiencies and the sustainability of their operations.

AgriLife Research weed science and cropping systems agronomist Muthukumar ″Muthu″ Bagavathiannan, Ph.D., is leading a $10 million grant project to transform cotton production into a more sustainable system in the southern U.S. Bagavathiannan is the Billie Turner Professor of Agronomy in the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences.

He said the goal of the new multistate project is to use improved management practices, such as reduced tillage and precision input management, to enhance soil health and sustainability across the Cotton Belt.

The grant, Climate-Smart Cotton: Developing Precision Regenerative Practices and Market Opportunities for Addressing Climate Change in the Cotton Belt, is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Texas plants almost 6 million acres of cotton yearly, and a Texas A&M AgriLife Research-led project will determine what precision management tools can improve the sustainability of this crop. (Michael Miller/Texas A&M AgriLife)

Soil health in the Cotton Belt in the U.S.

In 2024, cotton was planted on 11.7 million acres in the U.S., with Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee and Alabama being the major cotton-producing states in the U.S. Cotton Belt. Texas accounted for 5.98 million acres of the nation’s cotton this year.

Tillage intensity, a measure of how much soil is disturbed by tillage operations, is typically higher in cotton, where producers are trying to control problematic weeds, including the herbicide-resistant biotypes, which is a growing issue throughout the Cotton Belt. This intensive tillage can contribute to soil health issues such as increased erosion and greenhouse gas emissions.

″As we talk about soil health and crop sustainability, reduced tillage is an important part of the equation,″ Bagavathiannan said. ″Sustainable alternative weed management practices have a key role to play in a management system aiming to minimize tillage and improve soil health.″

Another side of the coin is integrating practices such as novel cover cropping and interseeded systems that improve soil health metrics and enhance ecosystem services. Approaching this goal within a precision agriculture framework is expected to enhance resource-use efficiency and help mitigate the risks of climatic variability in cotton production.

The sustainability of cotton production will require the management of weeds without increased tillage, which can contribute to soil health issues. (Laura McKenzie/Texas A&M AgriLife)

Gains expected with management changes

Bagavathiannan said the social science team will work with farmers to understand their experiences with adopting regenerative practices such as winter cover crops, summer-dormant perennial covers, interseeded harvestable covers and grazing integration, among others, across the Cotton Belt.

By determining which practices work and which ones don’t in the various areas, they can provide producers with strategies to support the adoption of successful regenerative practices.

Because cotton is commonly grown on marginal soils and is a low-residue crop itself, there is potential to realize rapid gains in soil health improvement and climatic variability mitigation with these practices, he said.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning-assisted precision application technologies such as smart spraying, drought sensing, irrigation scheduling with variable rate application, nutrient deficiency detection and pest monitoring are expected to greatly improve the efficient use of resources, Bagavathiannan said.

In the long term, the implementation of precision practices could also help create sustainable cotton markets and provide opportunities in other areas, such as carbon crediting.

″Ultimately, we want to be able to manage our agricultural inputs using a strategy that is adapted to variable climate conditions, and we believe that the precision technologies provide more robust tools to achieve that,″ he said.

Winter wheat can be a feasible cover crop for cotton in some regions. (Paul DeLaune/Texas A&M AgriLife)

The team and project goals

Texas A&M AgriLife is the lead institution of this proposal because the state produces the most cotton. AgriLife Research’s expertise hinges on decades of comprehensive research on cotton production and marketing.

However, team members are located throughout the Cotton Belt – Arizona, New Mexico, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina – and are affiliated with 12 universities, two USDA-Agriculture Research Service centers, one nonprofit organization, Agricenter International, and three for-profit organizations: Farm Journal/Trust in Food, NORI and GaiaDhi AgTech.

Through the project, the team of agronomists, soil scientists, biologists, engineers, social scientists and extension specialists will develop regenerative cotton production practices and investigate their long-term effects on U.S. cotton production systems, Bagavathiannan said.

The goals are to:

• Establish soil organic carbon and carbon intensity baselines for ecoregions in the southern U.S. cotton-growing regions.

  
  

• Investigate regenerative practices for reducing tillage and improving soil health.

  
  

• Investigate the long-term impact of regenerative practices in addressing climate change using simulation models.

  
  

• Develop and/or evaluate precision AI, machine learning and smart technologies for resource conservation and adaptation in cotton-growing conditions.

  
  

• Evaluate the economic feasibility of precision regenerative production practices and determine new market opportunities.

  
  

• Promote the adoption of proven regenerative production practices through innovative and collaborative extension and outreach activities.

  
  

• Provide educational opportunities to train the next generation of research and extension scientists and practitioners and empower the rural workforce.

The Cotton Belt ecoregions include: an arid region, where Arizona is the hub; a semiarid region, the Texas High Plains and New Mexico; a subhumid region, Southeast Texas; the Mississippi Delta; and the Southeast. 

″Cotton rotation is one of the least diverse rotations across the southern U.S., and more importantly, in the Texas High Plains,″ Bagavathiannan. ″That makes the system very vulnerable in terms of soil health and sustainability challenges. We are addressing that in this grant with an interdisciplinary approach, bringing people together and utilizing the recent technological advancements in precision agriculture tools.″