• Rapid and uncontrolled extraction of groundwater from the Ogallala Aquifer and poor water-conserving agricultural practices are causing significant challenges to sustaining the agricultural industry in the Southern High Plains.
• Conventional tillage and extended fallow periods in the Southern High Plains are leading to increased soil erosion, reduced water capture, lower soil organic matter and poor soil health
• Higher energy invested in conventional tillage compared to no-till adds to the greenhouse gas emissions
• Increased adoption of target climate smart commodities (i) Sorghum-cotton rotation; (ii) No till and (ii) Multispecies cover crops have the potential to combat increase in production costs, offset greenhouse gas emissions, enhance carbon sequestration from increased root biomass, increase water capture and infiltration, and increase soil N status through biological nitrogen fixation

1. Establish a robust baseline for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission (N2O, CO2, CH4) and derive low-cost, effective proxies to quantify emissions for the proposed climate smart commodities.
2. Identify spatial patterns of adoption of these climate smart commodities using remote sensing tools and determine both farm and regional level benefits from reduced GHG emissions.
3. Quantify economic outcomes of incorporating multispecies cover crops, sorghum in rotation with cotton and no-till, and estimate potential benefits for the producers.
4. Determine producer behavioral and sociological barriers in adopting climate smart commodities and derive recommendations to overcome these barriers for increased adoption.
5. Expand the long-term “Producer-Teaching-Producer” network through farm demonstrations to increase awareness of short- and long-term benefits of climate smart commodities.

1. Low-cost effective proxies for greenhouse gas (N2O, CO2, CH4) emission monitored, verified and established for temporal and spatial assessments at producer field sites.
2. Spatial patterns of the rate of adoption and spread of climate smart commodities quantified at the farm, county, and regional scale.
3. The economic implications of adoption of target climate smart commodities and their potential benefits to the producers.
4. Solutions for the economic or social barriers which lead to differential rates of adoption of climate smart commodities including small and underserved producers.
5. Comprehensive outreach established for increased awareness of climate smart commodities to a wide transect of producers, including small and underserved farmers.

Over the last 18 years, TAWC (Texas Alliance for Water Conservation) has generated trust and demonstrated effectiveness in implementing pragmatic solutions on producer farms. The proposed project will build on and leverage this association to establish and help expand the adoption of target climate smart commodities in the Texas High Plains. Twenty (20) producers representing 10 Texas counties have been identified within the categories of Hispanic, veteran, women, beginning farmers, and early adopters. Many of the producers have volunteered to participate in the project which is primarily due to the extensive trust the TAWC program has developed and the genuine efforts of the TAWC to make a difference on the ground, both economically and environmentally.

• All participating producers will be provided with capacitance probes or improved soil moisture sensing technology per field-site, including expense for capture and transfer of real-time data
• Soil sampling and analysis at different times in a year, with data shared with producers throughout the project timeline
• Field-sites will be equipped with weather stations as needed to develop precise evapotranspiration-based irrigation scheduling
• To compensate for time demanded for recording detailed information on farming activities and inputs, each participating producer will be paid $750/year.
• To motivate the participating producers to continue collaborating for the entire duration of the project, the project will provide $10/acre incentive for adopting these commodities

• Establish a standard reference baseline based on actual field-based measurements for quantifying the reduction in GHG emissions by adopting the target climate smart commodities in the Texas High Plains
• Biweekly measurements of different greenhouse gases N2O, CH4, CO2 will be recorded during the cropping season and once a month with multi-species cover crops on research farm and once a month on select producer fields.
• Field observations used to develop novel low-cost methodology for predicting GHG emissions on producer fields that can be scaled up to the regional level
• The economic relevance of these climate smart commodities will be determined at seasonal scale throughout the duration of the project.

• Remote sensing-based spatial mapping tools will be used to quantify the status of legume-based multi-species cover crops and cotton-sorghum rotation under no-till in the producer fields and entire Texas High Plains.
• High-resolution and multispectral unmanned aerial system (UAS) images will be acquired at the university farm and select producer sites for identifying spectral signatures of crop types and plant health conditions under different climate-smart cropping systems.

• COMET-Planner complemented with COMET-Farm will be used to provide the flexibility to include additional parameters and a quantitative measure of GHG emissions.
• Proxies developed by integrating in situ field GHG measurements from the university farm and producer fields, will facilitate tracking of GHG emissions on the participating producers' fields for each of the target climate smart commodities
• Verify GHG emissions and the potential benefits from GHG reductions through sustainability index by comparative assessment using COMET-Planner/COMET-Farm, Fieldprint Platform®, and GREET
• GREET model will be used for life cycle analysis (LCA) for grain sorghum in comparison with COMET-Farm.