Agronomic management practices to enhance agricultural sustainability

Climate change, narrow profit margins for producers, and increasing environmental scrutiny neccesitate that production systems be developed that are both economically and environmentally sustainable over the long-term. Greenhouse gas mitigation and national energy independence also require the development of sustainable bioenergy crop production systems. Field and laboratory experiments integrated with computer process models will be used to accomplish our goals of developingadvanced crop production systems that optimize nutrient management, crop rotation, and reduced tillage to increase soil carbon sequestration, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance the sustainability of both grain and bioenergy crops. The proposed research will accomplish these objectives and will also allow the determination of the carbon footprint of bioenergy sorghum production through a life cycle (cradle to grave) analysis.