AMES, Iowa – Iowa State University researchers are leading a $10 million, five-year USDA-funded project, called the Diverse Corn Belt Project, launched in 2022, to explore the potential to increase diversification of crops and livestock on farms in the Midwest.

It will include more than 30 investigators who are working with farmers and other agricultural stakeholders in Iowa, Indiana and Illinois, said J. G. Arbuckle, Iowa State professor of sociology, and director of the annual Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll.

For example, in Iowa, more than 24 million acres are devoted to crops, which represents about 68 percent of the state’s land area – and more than 94 percent of that land is used to produce corn and soybeans, according to the latest National Agriculture Statistics Survey, released in 2021.

“Iowa’s agriculture is highly specialized, with almost all of its cropland planted to corn and soybeans,” Arbuckle said. “However, few farmers think agricultural specialization has generally been positive for farmers and rural communities.”

Arbuckle is one of the investigators on the multi-state project seeking to address this trend, aiming to chart road maps that can help the region reverse these trends he said have been building for decades.

Linda Stalker Prokopy, a Purdue University professor who chairs the department of horticulture and landscape architecture, and is the Diverse Corn Belt Project director, said, “Our goal is to plant the seeds for new opportunities for farmers that will enhance resilience of both individual farms and the agricultural landscape across our region.

“While the corn and bean system works well for some, it brings challenges for others,” she said. “Recent years have seen record yields amid a backdrop of decreased farmer economic optimism, declining rural communities, and degraded environments.

“(Diverse Corn Belt) is exploring alternative agricultural systems that address economic, agronomic, and social needs of the Corn Belt better than the current corn and bean system,” she added.

When asked what these specific road maps are that will help reverse these trends, she said, “Our team of interdisciplinary researchers will work with stakeholders from across the agricultural value chain to identify challenges and opportunities faced by farmers, farming communities, and agricultural markets when diversifying.”

She said these agricultural stakeholders will include farmers; agricultural advisers; landowners; food, fiber, biomass retailers; consumer package good companies; Land Grant University Extension; policy makers; agricultural lenders; students; educators; researchers; and consumers.

“While our researchers explore economic, social and biophysical elements of diversity, we will continuously work with farmers and other stakeholders to share progress and incorporate feedback to develop evidence-based, stakeholder-informed road maps to alternative production systems,” she said.

Focus groups have already been held to gather insight and ideas from farmers representing a range of ages, farm sizes and degrees of diversification. Members of the team are analyzing the initial data and plan to conduct more focus groups in 2023.

The team also plans to collect data on farmer and agricultural stakeholder perspectives through a mail survey and individual interviews.

Officials said re-imagining Agricultural Diversity teams will be a unique feature of the project. While focus groups will center specifically on farmers, RAD (Restoration Agriculture Development) teams will offer a chance for “longer-term dialogue, exploration, and visioning.”

Philip Gassman, a researcher at Iowa State’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, who is part of the Diverse Corn Belt’s modeling group, said, “As ideas develop, we will also use modeling to evaluate the economic, environmental and climatic implications of different crops and livestock choices, landowner decisions and policy changes.”

He said the modelers will focus on one watershed in Iowa, Indiana and Illinois to help assess scenarios the RAD teams choose to explore in detail.

For Iowa, the watershed will be the upper portion of the Des Moines River Basin, where the project can leverage modeling being conducted by the Iowa State-led Urban Food-Energy-Water project.

“Corn and soybeans became the dominant cropping system over a century,” Gassman said. “To make headway, it will take work from a lot of angles to develop – or in some cases, redevelop – markets and infrastructure.”

Developing that infrastructure is part of the focus for another Iowa Diverse Corn Belt partner, Practical Farmers of Iowa, whose role includes extension-type support for outreach and field days.

According to Lydia English, Practical Farmers of Iowa field crops viability manager, who has a master’s degree in sustainable agriculture from Iowa State, Practical Farmers of Iowa is also providing leadership to help “develop market channels for alternative farming enterprises, which could create the pull for other project components.

“There is strong interest in creating alternative markets among the very diverse group of farmers we work with,” she said. “We view this as a two-way street: Farmers add value to the project, and the project has potential to benefit them over time by opening up new market options.”

The Diverse Corn Belt Project is funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture through an Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grant, with members of the research team representing land grant institutions, federal agencies and nonprofit organizations.

“If Midwestern agriculture is going to thrive over the long term, it needs to be resilient to unexpected challenges from pests and diseases, harsh weather, uncertain input costs and market volatility,” said Matthew Liebmann, Iowa State professor emeritus of agronomy, who helped craft the plan for the Diverse Corn Belt Project, and continues to serve as an adviser.

“Diversity can be an effective way to protect crop yields, livestock production, and farm profitability, while also improving environmental quality,” he said. “Researchers, farmers and other members of the agricultural community working together can identify the best paths toward diverse, durable farming systems.”

Prokopy said, “Combined efforts of our research team and participating stakeholders will develop evidence-based visions for the future that include a diversified agricultural landscape across the Corn Belt.

“These visions will pave a path towards a more diversified Corn Belt, and change the conversation about diversification in the Midwest,” she said.

For farmers or other stakeholders interested in learning more about – or getting involved in – the project can visit the Diverse Corn Belt website at: https://diversecornbelt.org/.