Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Director: What is on-farm research and what makes it important?

Back to Leopold Letter Summer 2007

By JERRY DeWITT, Leopold Center director

Q. What is on-farm research and what makes it important?

We often hear the term “on-farm research.” Iowa State University faculty as well as field specialists from ISU Extension conduct research on farms across the state. Farmers themselves also participate in demonstrations and other projects as they attempt to solve problems on their farms.

So what is on-farm research? First, it is more than a series of replicated test plots that just happen to be on a private farm because the farmer is cooperating with a university researcher or extension specialist. On-farm research calls for the creativity of identifying problems, discovering possible solutions and testing answers under real-time conditions. Because the work is done on-site and practices are specific to a particular farm, on-farm research requires a complex system of planning and execution.

Key to the success of on-farm research is an open dialogue between the scientist/specialist and the farmer. It requires questioning, listening, sharing interpretations, adapting techniques and methods and finally adoption at a field level. At the Leopold Center we think that on-farm research is important because it adds richness to the findings of researchers and farmers and can lead to meaningful changes in farm practices.

Q. What is the role of on-farm research at the Leopold Center?

There are roles both for research occurring at a university farm or research station, and for research that is conducted on private farms. At the Leopold Center, we are particularly enthusiastic about research on private farms. This type of research honors the farmer’s role by exploring how problems emerge in a real-life arena and then using the farmer’s guidance to help solve the problem and observe interactions of variables at the field level.

The Leopold Center has a history of supporting a variety of research options. Our challenge is to balance those approaches properly so we can invest in projects that can make a significant difference on the farm. We gravitate toward those projects that involve the farmer early in the needs assessment process, conduct project planning and actual research on a working farm, and work with the farmer for dissemination and demonstration of what has been learned.

Q. What other opportunities are there for farmers to participate in on-farm research?

Farmers in Iowa are well situated to be partners in on-farm research. The Center cooperates with and supports a number of avenues to increase on-farm research opportunities.

The Center works with the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which funds an annual program in collaboration with Practical Farmers of Iowa. The ISU/PFI On-Farm Research Program provides competitive grants that support partnerships between Iowa farmers and ISU faculty, staff and extension field specialists to conduct small research projects on Iowa farms.

In 1992, the North Central Region (NCR) Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture began a competitive grants program exclusively to fund producers striving for agricultural sustainability. NCR-SARE has sponsored nearly 250 producer grants worth more than $1 million since initiating its Farmer Rancher Grant program.
http://ncr.sare.org

PFI also operates its own statewide program for on-farm research and demonstrations among its own members. The Leopold Center has provided an annual grant to PFI that covers a portion of the costs for this program, which includes more than two dozen field days scheduled for this summer and fall.
http://www.practicalfarmers.org

Organic on-farm research is supported by the Organic Farming Research Foundation based in California. This competitive program, now in its 15th year, has supported 243 organic research and education projects totaling $1.6 million, including some projects on Iowa farms.
http://ofrf.org

And finally, the Leopold Center’s annual call for grant project ideas also could involve on-farm research. Watch for our call for 2007 pre-proposals in early July.
 

Back to Leopold Letter Summer 2007