How to grow grains despite climate change

How can farmers help their grain crops handle climate change? CFAES researchers Rafiq Islam and Alan Sundermeier will suggest practices at the upcoming annual conference of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA). Their workshop, “2020 Climate-Smart Organic Grains for Healthy Soils, Healthy Food, and Healthy People,” is set for 8:30–10 a.m. Feb. 14. 

The entire OEFFA conference, the largest ecological agriculture conference in Ohio, runs from Feb. 13–15 in Dayton.

Bending with the storm

Islam, who is soil and bioenergy program leader at CFAES’s OSU South Centers, and Sundermeier, director and educator in the Wood County office of CFAES’s OSU Extension outreach arm, will share cutting-edge information on cropping diversity with multifunction cover crops, electrolyzed and magnetic waters, plant inducers, and soil amendments, all aimed at boosting the resilience of grain production.

“Relying on chemical-heavy agricultural intensification to feed the world has deteriorated soil health, water quality, and other ecosystem services,” the workshop’s description says, “but we can still thrive with ecological production systems that improve soils.”

Registration costs for the conference vary. Learn more.

Islam, Sundermeier, and Aaron Wilson and Vinayak Shedekar, the latter two also with CFAES, also will present a workshop at the conference called “Building Agricultural Resilience to a Changing Climate” from 1–4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13. Admission to this workshop is open to both conference registrants and the public, but you need to RSVP to attend. Find out more. (Photo: Wheat and approaching thunderstorm, Getty Images.)

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