Technical Assistance for Continuous Living Cover Agricultural Practices
Title
Technical Assistance for Continuous Living Cover Agricultural Practices
Published Date
2021-05
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Thesis or Dissertation
Abstract
Green Lands Blue Waters (GLBW) is an organization devoted to bringing about “a new generation of multifunctional agricultural systems in the Upper Mississippi River Basin and adjacent areas that integrate more perennial plants and other Continuous Living Cover into the agricultural landscape.” In late 2020, GLBW approached the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota to ask for a master’s degree student capstone team to assist in their work regarding agricultural technical assistance (TA). This report is the result of the student capstone team’s research. In this report, the student capstone team (“we” or “the team”) explores opportunities to improve agricultural practices that improve soil health and retention while benefiting farmers, specifically by improving training for providers of technical assistance (“TA” or “technical assistance providers” or “TSPs”). We are focused on TA for agricultural practices known as continuous living cover (CLC). At its core, CLC is the idea that you always have something alive in the soil: not just mulch, and not just summer commodity crops, but living roots at all times. This research seeks to answer three primary questions: (1) In places where CLC adoption has been successful, how has TA played a role? (2) How are technical service providers (TSPs) trained? (3) Is CLC implementation currently part of a TSP position’s expectation and performance evaluation? Research for this report included a review of relevant literature and a survey conducted by Green Lands Blue Waters, but the primary source of this report’s findings is a collection of interviews with 11 individuals connected in various ways to soil health technical assistance.
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Capstone paper for the fulfillment of the Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree.
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