SCC-IRG Track 1: Co-Producing Community - An integrated approach to building smart and connected nutrient management communities in the US Corn Belt

美国玉米带的农民生产了世界上30%的玉米和大豆，这取决于使用含氮(N)和磷(P)的肥料。然而，由于缺乏一致和可靠的信息，这些农民倾向于过度施肥。这种做法直接影响到农民，因为他们支付的肥料成本高于必要水平，并对环境的可持续性产生负面影响。然而，农民对营养管理挑战的看法差异很大，他们采用新的营养管理方法的意愿也存在很大差异。与伊利诺伊州农业局、伊利诺伊大学推广部合作，并通过这些合作组织直接吸引农民，学术和社区合作伙伴团队旨在建立一个智能和互联的“营养管理社区（NuMC）”，帮助农民采用有效和值得信赖的营养管理工具，解决由营养流失引起的关键水质问题，同时降低农场营养应用成本。该项目建立在自愿采用营养管理做法的前提下，并包括社会科学问题，以评估鼓励采用自愿“最佳做法”的原因和策略。农民需要更精确地管理氮和磷，以提高农民的盈利能力，减少可能危害水资源的非农营养物质损失。这项研究的目的是针对不同农民的需求，针对美国玉米带的核心地区伊利诺斯州，提出以科学为导向的氮磷管理建议。这项工作有三个目标：(1)确定伊利诺伊州农民如何管理氮磷管理的主要制约因素，并确定这些制约因素在农民之间的差异程度；(2)确定伊利诺伊州不同农场土壤中的氮磷储量（包括通过使用土壤传感器和卫星观测），以及这种土壤养分资本如何促进作物生长，以模拟田间特定肥料需求；(3)开发智能互联技术解决方案，使受限制的农民能够加入营养管理社区（NuMC）。这项工作将通过提供相互关联的社会科学、生物地球化学和技术动态方面的见解，促进农业社区对农业管理的理解。拟议的方法将产生一个以社区为基础的网络基础设施，以解决一个迫切的需求：为伊利诺伊州的农民提供直接获取高质量和公正的营养管理信息的渠道。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Farmers in the United States (US) Corn Belt produce ~30% of the world’s corn and soybean, which depends on the use of fertilizers containing both nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). However, due to a lack of consistent and reliable information, these farmers tend to over-apply fertilizer. This practice directly affects farmers, as they are paying higher fertilizer costs than necessary, and negatively impacts environmental sustainability. Yet, farmers’ perceptions of nutrient management challenges vary widely as does their willingness to adopt novel nutrient management approaches. Working collaboratively with the Illinois Farm Bureau, the University of Illinois Extension, and engaging farmers directly through the these partnering organizations, the team of academic and community partners aims to build a smart and connected "Nutrient Management Community (NuMC)" to help farmers adopt effective and trusted nutrient management tools to address critical water quality issues stemming from nutrient runoff while reducing farm nutrient application costs. The project is built on the premise of voluntary adoption of nutrient management practices and includes social science questions to assess the reasons and strategies for encouraging adoption of voluntary “best practices.”Enabling farmers to manage N and P with greater precision is needed to increase farmer profitability and decrease off-farm losses of nutrients, which can compromise water resources. The objective of this research is to develop science-driven recommendations on N and P management that can be tailored to different farmers’ needs, focusing on the heart of the US Corn Belt: Illinois. This work has three objectives: (1) identify major constraints on how Illinois farmers manage N and P management, and determine to what extent these constraints vary among farmers; (2) determine how much N and P are stocked in soils across a diversity of Illinois farm (including through the use of soil sensors and satellite observations), and how this soil nutrient capital contributes to crop growth in order to model field-specific fertilizer needs; and (3) develop smart and connected technology solutions that enable constrained farmers to join a Nutrient Management Community (NuMC). This work will advance understanding of agricultural management by and for farming communities by providing insights on interrelated social science, biogeochemistry, and technology dynamics. The proposed approach will produce a community-based cyberinfrastructure that will address an urgent need: providing Illinois farmers direct access to high-quality and unbiased information on management nutrients.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.