Project will help build resiliency among small and underserved farms
ECU is extending its impact through a multi-institutional project funded by the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines program. The $1 million grant-funded project, called Climate-Responsive Opportunities in Plant Science, aims to build resiliency among underserved and small farms across eastern and central North Carolina through educational programming, translation and innovation, and research and workforce development activities.
Led by N.C. A&T State University, CROPS brings together researchers from ECU, Duke University, N.C. State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University and business and research partners like the N.C. Biotechnology Center, N.C. Cooperative Extension, Research Triangle International and the N.C. Community College System. The team will collaborate with growers, small businesses, learners and entrepreneurs across a 42-county corridor.
To share information and technology faster and more broadly across the state, the team plans to build an “agricultural tech corridor” across central and eastern North Carolina. Project partners are dedicated to educational programs that deliver up-to-date information on such topics as farming technologies, agricultural business management, natural resource conservation, and climate responsive research and innovations that can help transform eastern North Carolina and beyond.
The project also proposes ways to strengthen entrepreneurship and help small producers identify new crop enterprises that have the potential to increase farm income and help develop community-based food systems. The program will stress climate-smart techniques and ways to create climate resilience and provide information about technologies to help agricultural operations thrive, said Gregory Goins, associate dean for research at N.C. A&T’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.
As the institution in the region that is home to many of the state’s largest farms, ECU will bring a focus to agricultural workforce development and innovation in underserved counties through new and established engaged partnerships.
“Genuine and trusted relationships matter in eastern North Carolina,” said Angela Lamson, interim assistant vice chancellor for economic and community engagement and the ECU lead for CROPS. “ECU aims to ensure that the voices and needs of our rural growers, farm workers, small businesses and underrepresented communities are included in our discussions as we strengthen pathways toward prosperity in eastern North Carolina.”
The purpose of the NSF Engines program is to help spur economic growth in rural and underserved regions. Since January, the foundation has awarded 10 projects in 18 states. North Carolina is part of three Regional Innovation Engines awards.