Transformative changes are needed to address agriculture’s grand challenge of increasing food
production while maintaining environmental integrity. Changes must mitigate: agricultures high
energy demand; impending water scarcity and herbicide-resistant weeds; consequences of climate
change (more frequent flooding, droughts, and extreme heat); and decline in soil health, critical for
improving soil and water quality. This proposal will address these unprecedented threats by
providing the infrastructure necessary to support and accelerate cover crop (CC) use nationwide,
thereby meeting NIFA program goals of 1) increasing total factor productivity, 2) improving water
and nitrogen use efficiency, and 3) reducing losses due to biotic and abiotic stresses. An integrated
transdisciplinary approach of research (54%), extension (30%), and education (16%) components
will address our objectives to: 1) Transform CC data connectivity via nationwide social and
technical infrastructure; 2) Develop key technologies to improve CC performance, inform
management, and determine impacts on agronomic productivity, stability, and ecosystem services;
3) Deploy key technologies with CCs to assess abiotic and biotic factors affecting crop
performance; 4) Transform education and extension knowledge delivery to catalyze CC adoption;
and 5) Determine the effectiveness of a CC information ecology as a model for integrating
participatory research and practice. A nationwide team of dedicated research, extension and NGO
personnel from 28 institutions will establish on-station and on-farm research networks, novel
teaching curriculum, and extensive social-science based outreach. Our overall goal is to increase
crop productivity, conserve natural resources, and reduce our agro-ecological footprint through
increased and improved use of CCs.