A majority of Maryland crop farmers believe the climate is changing, and many are making some kind of adaptation to it.
But farmers need to be enabled to adapt further, especially in the area of nitrogen management, according to Dr. Matthew Houser, a research sociologist with The Nature Conservancy’s Chesapeake Bay Agriculture Program and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
Houser reported the survey results in an April 29 webinar hosted by the Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology at the University of Maryland’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Dr. Matthew Houser
He outlined an approach to identifying and enabling adaptations that help both the farmer and the environment.
Houser cited a study from 2021-2022 when he interviewed 30 large-scale row crop producers from various parts of the state. The farmers surveyed had an average of about 1,560 acres in crop production.
Of that group, 83% said they believed climate change was real, whether or not they believed it was caused by human activity.
“Drought is longer, heat is hotter, and when storms come they are heavier and more severe,” Houser said, quoting one of the farmers in his survey.
Twenty-seven out of the 30 farmers in the survey reported doing some type of adaptation for the changing weather patterns, including planting corn varieties that better resist harsh conditions and drought.
Field applications of nitrogen fertilizer release nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas more potent per unit than carbon dioxide in warming the planet, Houser said.
Houser credited the Maryland Department of Agriculture’s nutrient management program, including its support of cover cropping and no-till, for helping farmers manage soil inputs.
“Farmers in Maryland have done a lot but need to do more in exploring how to decrease nitrogen,” he said.
Hans Schmidt, assistant secretary in the Maryland Department of Agriculture’s Office of Resource Conservation, asked what more can be done when Maryland already has “the best nutrient management program in the country.”
Houser said the conservancy and some faculty from the university are working on a performance-related payment program that would reward farmers directly for practices that help ease climate change.
Carbon markets are still not enticing to many farmers in the region for various reasons, but Houser sees a lot of potential in them.
“If the markets are done well, farmers will certainly turn to them,” he said.
One drawback to some carbon credit programs is that they tend to reward new practices without recognizing conservation measures already being done on farms.
In a separate study, Houser surveyed 154 crop farmers in the Midwest, where nitrous oxide emissions are more concentrated, especially with increased heavy rainfalls causing farmers to add extra nitrogen during the growing season.
According to one Midwest farmer in the survey, “The amount of rain we’ve had has made us add an additional 50 pounds (of nitrogen per acre) just because the rain flushes it down the system.”
Leaving an open question for webinar participants, dairy farmer and sustainable agriculture researcher Judy Gifford of Kennedyville, Maryland, wondered whether climate solutions were possible in the current row-cropping system with its primary focus on profitability through maximum production.
Houser offered a general outlook on the future of nutrient management in the region.
“Things are definitely going to change,” he said. “It’s a matter of how and why.”
