FFAR and OFRF Award Montana State University Grant to Enhance Soil Health

SANTA CRUZ and WASHINGTON (June 2, 2020) – The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) awarded a second year of funding to Dr. Jed Eberly at Montana State University based on the promise shown in his first year of organic lentil trials. Eberly and his team are incorporating lentils into organic cropping systems to enhance soil health and improve the economics of organic operations. The outcomes of this research will help organic lentil growers improve yields and nutritional quality leading to better returns on investments.

OFRF and FFAR initially partnered in 2019 to increase research funding for organic legume production. Eberly’s grant is the first of thirteen research projects OFRF will fund this year focused on the most pressing challenges facing organic farmers and ranchers today. This is the most grants OFRF has awarded in a single year, due in large part to a match from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) aimed at funding research related to improving soil health and reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture.

“Every year, we are impressed by the number of strong research proposals we receive from across North America,” said Brise Tencer, Executive Director at OFRF. “Thankfully, we were able to confirm that all of the research projects we selected to fund this year will be able to move forward despite the current pandemic.”

The amount of legume seeds planted on each acre effects nutrient acquisition, weed management and yield potential. Little is known about the optimum amount seed that should be planted in organic cropping systems to maximize these benefits. Eberly is addressing this knowledge gap by exploring the relationship between seeding rates, lentil yields and soil health.

Trials performed in 2019 showed that increasing seeding rates significantly increased lentil yields and reduced weed density by an average of 40 percent. Based on these results, Eberly and team are further increasing seeding rates this season to ensure they capture the maximum weed suppression and yield response. The research team is also performing a cost-benefit analysis to determine if higher seeding rates and yields are economically beneficial for organic farmers.