Information sharing, key to soil-health approach

Erin Silva is the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. She also is the State Extension Specialist in organic agriculture, which includes leading the Organic Grain Resource and Information Network (OGRAIN).

Erin works in the areas of organic agriculture, soil health, cover cropping, crop diversification, soil biology, and regenerative agriculture. Prior to joining the faculty at UW-Madison in 2006, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at New Mexico State University.

In the following Q&A, she says that farmer-led research and information sharing is core to her team’s approach.

What are the primary objectives of your research?

Silva: My research program in organic and regenerative agriculture focuses on the development and evaluation of management practices and systems that foster soil health, crop quality and environmental stewardship. Key areas of research include:

·       Development of minimal tillage and cover-cropping practices for organic production

·       Development of crop varieties specifically adapted to organic production

·       Creation of farm-management tools for organic grain and vegetable producers

What do you want farmers/other stakeholders to know about your program?

Silva: That farmer-led research and information sharing is core to our approach.

What’s something new you’ve learned through the SHARE collaboration?

Silva: One thing that strikes me is the value of the transdisciplinary participatory approach that SHARE employs.

Why are you interested in soil health?

Silva: Without soil health, we are compromising our food security, particularly in the face of changing weather patterns.

Why are you interested in SHARE?

Silva: We are stronger working together. We all have so much to learn from each other.

Francois Anglade (left) and Faye Darga, members of Erin Silva's research team, collect data on organic soybeans growing in a rolled-crimped winter rye cover crop mulch.

What’s your favorite soil health practice (and why):

Silva: Cover cropping. There are so many benefits to cover crops – from protecting the soil from erosion to feeding soil biology to enhancing above ground biodiversity.

From left, Jessica Drewry, Ben Brockmueller, and Chuck Breneman, members of Erin Silva's research team, examine soybean seed placement after no-till planting into rolled-crimped rye.