Welcome

From the Ground Up is a farmer-led research project to improve the performance of climate smart agricultural practices in the Midwest.

What are we doing?

Our farmer-led team is working to improve real-world, on-farm performance of ‘Climate Smart’ Agricultural Practices (CSAPs) to ensure they better generate the outcomes – e.g. profitability, yield stability, and protection from extreme weather events – that farmers need.

How are we doing it?

Farmers from across Ohio and Missouri are designing and implementing on-farm research projects that track the agronomic, economic, and environmental performance of CSAPs under working farm conditions. They are partnering with researchers at Ohio State, University of Missouri, Central State University, and Lincoln University to document outcomes and identify innovative solutions that address CSAP performance gaps across diverse types of farms in each state

Our team is also working with local and national stakeholders, and our partners at Solutions from the Land, to improve support for CSAP use and to identify ways to change policies and market incentives to meet the needs of farmers using CSAPs.

We’re working to understand:

1. Performance: How well do CSAPs perform under working farm conditions?
2. Variability: What on-farm factors explain variability in CSAP performance?
3. Incentives: What off-farm factors need to be addressed to create more incentives to use CSAPs?

Our farmers, researchers, and partners are working FROM THE GROUND UP to improve performance and increase CSAP use across the Midwest, by making CSAPs work better for farmers.