Sustainability Watch Program - USA
STRATEGIC DATA COLLECTION EFFORT TO HELP SCALE THE BENEFITS OF RESILIENT AGRICULTURE
Join CCA's and agronomists all around the US helping bring forth the future of resilient agriculture
American Society of Agronomy webinar
In this ASA webinar, we discussed the science behind large scale measurement of conservation practices, and how crop advisers can get involved.
Soil health management incentives across public and private sectors heavily rely on the monitoring and quantification of changes in the adoption of conservation practices. “Sustainability Watch” (SW) project is a part of ongoing public-private partnerships between Dagan, The Nature Conservancy, the Conservation Technology Information Center, and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. The goal of the project is to map adoption of conservation practices using the Operational Tillage Information System (OpTIS). Watch the webinar to learn more.
Sustainability Watch Partnership
FluroSat is partnering with Dagan to jointly map changes in adoption rates of no-till, cover cropping, and crop rotations across the US using a remote sensing-based approach. After mapping tillage practices and cover cropping, we then apply a soil and crop model to investigate soil health and environmental outcomes associated with changes in the detected adoption rates.
Results from across the corn belt, mapped by Dagan and partners at TNC and CTIC in 2019 (see figure on the right), indicate some areas saw significant increases in conservation practice adoption rates, particularly of cover crop crops, and suggest beneficial soil health outcomes. Policymakers, as well as companies across the supply chain, will use this aggregate information to make more informed decisions on how to best support farmers to be the stewards of the land they strive to be.
Whilst the 2019 project was focused on areas of the Midwest and Upper Midwest, the 2020 data collection will support the development of the US-wide sustainability practices maps.
We pay for your time
We provide stipends for data collectors conducting the roadside surveys in accordance with our requirements. We ask each data collector to perform up to 6 roadside surveys of 30-40 fields in their county between Nov-July.
Training on digital tools
We provide all our data collectors with training on how to use our mobile app to accept assignments, collect observations and take pictures of the fields to ensure you have good experience in the program!
Program support
We want to make sure you always have someone to call on if you need help or not sure about any particular part of the process. You can give a ring to our customer support team anytime!
Privacy policy
We take data privacy seriously. We do not ask you to provide any information of your clients, but instead to visit a set of random fields in your area to help us validate satellite observations.
How do Sustainability Watch Advisors contribute?
If you are an accredited agronomist or a Certified Crop Consultant interested in joining our “Sustainability Watch” partnership, here are the key details:
- We will ask you to survey a set of 20-30 fields (incl. 10-10 fields of your choosing) within driving distance, and to complete a simple survey regarding tillage practices and cover crops.
- You will need a mobile phone to install our mobile app – most iPads, iPhones, or Androids would work
- We will ask for a single invoice upon your last visit for full payment
- Paperwork needed will be a signed contract, and an I-9 form
