UF ABE’s Vivek Sharma, Ph.D. was awarded a $1.3 M grant from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) – Office of Agricultural Water Policy to expand his extension work in the Florida Stakeholder Engagement Program (STEP). STEP is an annual crop growing contest to engage growers, industry, and other stakeholders in an interactive real-world system to increase cotton productivity, sustainability, and profitability. Farmers are given the opportunity to experiment with new hybrid plants, fertilizer solutions, and even drone and remote sensing data- advanced technologies that might not be available or are new to them. For the past four years, the project has focused exclusively on corn production, and this new grant will facilitate the addition of cotton cultivation.
“With this program, we provide these technologies free of cost so that farmers can use them in a risk-free environment,” Sharma enthuses. They are more able to familiarize themselves with new technology and strategies. Our aim is that they will go back to the farm with new options which are both efficient and profitable.”
The impact of this research and this type of experimentation is substantial in that it explores ways to produce crops more efficiently- producing less waste, less pollution, more yield. The value in testing different management strategies in fine tuning crop water and nutrient efficiency bolsters food security. The goal is to spend less, grow more, leave less of a footprint, and streamline workflow.
The aim of STEP upon its inception in 2021 was to optimize production efficiency in a variety of crops, and the FDACS one-million-dollar grant will support the program’s expansion goals. Sharma’s work with STEP up to date has focused primarily on corn production, and this new grant will usher in a new era of working with other plants, starting with cotton.
“The proposal was developed on the success of the program that we’re running in North Florida in corn production systems. And now we are expanding that program into cotton as well. Every production system is different and their priorities are different because they are located in different regions as well. For example, corn is in Suwannee River Water Management District 40 River basin. For cotton, we’ll have to go to the Florida Panhandle where most of the cotton growers are located,” he explains.
Sharma’s drive is to enhance farmer’s efficacy and resiliency through research and experimentation, “My long term goal with this is to look at different strategies, effective strategies, that we can provide to growers. For the farmer, at the end of the day, profit matters. In this program, we integrate not just the agronomic practices, but link everything to the economics so that farmers can increase net revenue.”
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