Texas farmers, ranchers, small forest owners adopting climate-smart practices can apply to participate
TheTexas Climate Smart Initiative, led byTexas A&M AgriLife Research, hasannounced financial incentivesfor farmers, ranchers and small forest owners statewide who volunteer to adopt climate-smart agricultural practices.
Representatives of the Texas Climate-Smart Initiative will work withparticipantsselected through an application process, helping them understand and implement climate-smart practices. Initiative leaders select new participants bimonthly. Producers who have already adopted climate-smart practices are eligible.
Prospective participants can apply at the Texas Climate Smart Initiative website. Specific incentive information is also available at the site’s producer resources page.
The Texas Climate Smart Initiative announces financial incentives for commodity producers statewide adopting climate-smart practices (Michael Miller/Texas A&M AgriLife)
Producer benefits, market-based solutions
The Texas Climate Smart Initiative isa five-year large-scale pilot projectto work with the state’s commodity producers. Its goal is to help producers adopt climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices, access benefits, and develop models for voluntary, market-based climate solutions.
“Our main focus in this project is to simultaneously improve resilience to climate change and mitigation of climate change through adoption of climate-smart practices,” said Julie Howe, Ph.D., soil chemistry and fertility professor in the Texas A&MDepartment of Soil and Crop Sciences, Bryan-College Station. Howe is the project’s principal investigator.
“Texas’ diversity in agriculture and natural resources — seen in our climates and soil — particularly, makes Texas a great place to create solutions that can be scaled to other areas of the nation and build upon existing infrastructure,” she said.