Noble Research Institute, the nation’s largest nonprofit agricultural research organization, has been given a 2024 Regenerative Agriculture Research Grant from the Greenacres Foundation to advance its ongoing pecan-focused research.
The $295,000 grant was awarded to aid the organization’s study of pecan silvopasture and measuring improved soil health’s impact on building profitable and resilient systems. In line with Noble’s goal of regenerating 164 million acres of U.S. grazing land by 2040, this three-year project will contribute to the continuing research focused on the impact of implementing regenerative practices for achieving a balanced and resilient ecosystem.
“This Greenacres Foundation Grant will support research to monitor soil health across a continuum of management practices in producer pecan orchards across Texas and Oklahoma,” said Dr. Lauren Jones, principal investigator on the project and senior research associate for Noble Research Institute. “More specifically, the funds will contribute to systems-level research that we are doing in pecan silvopasture to better understand which agricultural practices lead to improvement in soil health.”
The team will sample soil, pecan leaves, and nuts as part of the project and correlate the data to management decisions and economics. Researchers hypothesize that healthier soils achieved through regenerative management will lead to healthier trees and more nutrient-dense pecans.
The study will address the following priorities:
• Improving soil health using agro-ecological principles
• Improving the resiliency of agricultural lands
• Integrating livestock into cropping systems
• Understanding the impact of production practices on the nutrient density of food
Integrating livestock is an important tool to improve soil health and is one of the six soil health principles we base our regenerative management practices on. With the animal impact, the study will gauge whether manure decomposition will contribute to the system needs and will consider the impact that grazing, no grazing, and different types of grazing will have on building soil health. The team has also developed a monitoring plan to study different management strategies that include different types of grazing to determine the impact on soil health.
Locations identified for data collection include pecan orchards on producer properties in Texas and Oklahoma, two of the top five pecan-producing states in the U.S. This will be Noble’s first long-term study in a pecan silvopasture system where the results will aid not only the pecan producers, but also the silvopasture systems.
Greenacres Foundation, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit, is dedicated to advancing research and initiatives that promote a healthier and more sustainable future through active engagement in land preservation, education and the arts.
To learn more about Noble Research Institute’s current pecan research, please visit www.noble.org/pecan-strategy-research.
