KINGSVILLE (Sept. 16, 2024) — 91AV;M University–Kingsville graduate student Erik Zamora recently received a grant from The Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SSARE) as a part of its 2024 Graduate Student Grants program.
The $21, 991 grant will fund Zamora’ project entitled Developing Soil Carbon Balance (SCB) in a Long-Term Row Crop Production System.
In all, there were only 21 projects funded for a total of $404,423 by the 2024 Graduate Student Grants program that considers projects from master’s and Ph.D. students enrolled in accredited institutions throughout America’s south region, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin islands.
“Writing a grant at a master level definitely puts me on top of the game for my future, which is to pursue a Ph.D.,” said Zamora, a Brownsville native pursuing his master’s degree in plant and soil science. “Just to be able to start a project from funding, then start the actual project and see it through throughout the years is something I’ll cherish. It’s been exciting and writing a grant was certainly not an easy task, but thankful, Dr. (Sanku) Dattamudi was there helping me every step of the way, and without him, I wouldn’t have been able to do this.”
91AV;M-Kingsville assistant professor of science and agroecology Dr. Sanku Dattamudi joins Zamora as the principal investigator on the project, which focuses on soil health of a long-term 91AV;M AgriLife research field in Corpus Christi. The field has practiced cotton-sorghum crops over 30 years, but began an integration of cover crop mixtures four years ago to see the ecosystem services they have to offer.
“We wanted to see if those cover crops over the last four years, have added enough carbon into the soil,” Dattamudi said. “Cover crops not only add carbon, but they release carbon dioxide, which is a prominent greenhouse gas. When it releases the greenhouse gas, our idea is to see the budget of carbon in the soil. How much carbon dioxide is releasing and how much carbon is being accumulated in the soil?
“We are developing a Soil Carbon Balance (SBC) for the plot,” Dattamudi added. “This is a sustainable approach to understand the ability of those cover crops in this agro-climatic region and how they work and how they function.”
Zamora has spent time collecting soil samples, analyzing soil moisture and other physicochemical properties to determine the soil health of the research plot.
The research will even help get an idea of the soil health for a South Texas region that has had issues with soil moisture during grow season. Zamora and Dattamudi hope the cover crops can help.
Another benefit of cover crops is having them capture carbon from the atmosphere and into the soil during photosynthesis, prompting the USDA to give out a financial incentive for growers who plant them.
It’s one of the many ways the project can help farmers, the thing that drives Zamora to pursue this project.
“The biggest aspect of this project is helping farmers in the region,” Zamora said. “The goal is to help others. That’s the biggest takeaway from our finding. Right now, Environmental Quality Incentives Payment (EQIP) program are helping growers to earn additional income and this can be a stepping stone for many farmers here in the region.”
More about the project can be found here: https://projects.sare.org/sare_project/gs24-297/
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