The University of Tennessee and the UT Institute of Agriculture have received a grant to develop and test a decision support tool to protect farmers from the risks of extreme weather events.
The $434,038 Seeding Solutions grant from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research will help farmers better manage crop production from risks of extreme weather events across the Tennessee River Basin and surrounding southeast US regions.
UT is providing matching funds for a total investment of $966,119 over the three year project.
The impact of extreme weather events on crop loss
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that extreme weather events are responsible for 90% of crop losses. These estimates are generally based on annual climate conditions.
However, extreme short-term weather events, termed ‘flash’ droughts and floods, can severely impact crop production.
These events have not been researched to the same extent, which has led to the development of better crop management tools for farmers.
Preparing for unpredictable conditions
Using novel combinations of watershed hydrology models and monitoring data, including satellites and on-site field monitoring, researchers are developing a decision-support tool that will allow stakeholders to prepare for unpredictable conditions brought about by extreme weather events such as flash floods and drought.
The collaborative research team is led by John Schwartz, the director of the Tennessee Water Resources Research Center and a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. It also includes Ming Jin, director of the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, Brian Leib, and Shawn Hawkins with the UT Institute of Agriculture.
The researchers are exploring how existing hydrologic and crop models can be combined with historical trends and current monitoring data to inform crop choice, irrigation needs, and farm management.
Minimising crop loss
Results are expected to help minimise crop losses and increase yield, maximise water use efficiency, and enhance the resilience of agricultural systems to climate change.
“The decision support tool for row crop producers being developed by our UT research team will provide them useful predictive information,” Schwartz said.
“It will be particularly useful for short-term, extreme weather hazards, considering in recent years weather patterns in this region have more often shifted to a wetter spring followed by a flash drought early summer, which creates producer challenges of when to plant and whether irrigation is needed.”
