What is the Arizona Climate-Smart Practices Program & How Can You Participate?

As Phoenix broke the record for over 113 straight days of over 100-degree temperatures this past summer, there has never been a more critical time to focus on conserving water, promoting soil health, and mitigating climate change. This is why a group of partners created the Arizona Climate-Smart Practices Program. 

Arizona Association of Conservation Districts (AACD) in collaboration with 13 organizations

The five-year grant project was developed by the Arizona Association of Conservation Districts (AACD) in collaboration with 13 organizations, with plans to onboard 40 Arizona producers, to include 20 tribal and underserved partners. It incentivizes climate-smart agricultural practices such as planting diverse cover crops, crop rotation, mulching, low or no tillage, prescribed grazing, improving energy efficiencies, and nutrient management. By adopting these practices, Arizona farmers and ranchers will provide beneficial ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration and improving water cycles. The project also emphasizes cross-cultural knowledge sharing between Native producers and program participants.

If you are an Arizona producer, read more to learn how you can participate and get paid for implementing contextually-driven conservation and climate-smart practices. Applications are now open!

If you are someone who likes to buy local from Arizona family farms and businesses, keep reading to learn how you can play a role in the success of this program by supporting the local farmers and ranchers who are producing healthy, delicious food in environmentally-responsible ways. 

Why Climate-Smart?

“Climate-smart” is a relatively new term and is becoming more mainstream, with the federal government investing nearly $20 billion to encourage agricultural producers and forest landowners nationwide to voluntarily adopt climate-smart practices. Under the umbrella of “Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities,” 141 collaborative grant projects across the United States are focusing on sequestering carbon, paying farmers, ranchers, and forest owners to adopt climate friendly practices and developing innovative, premium markets for the products grown using such practices. Climate-smart agriculture must show the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and/or an increase in the amount of carbon stored in the soil through measuring, monitoring, and verifying processes. 

Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Grants

Arizona is one of the states participating in these climate-smart grant projects. In 2022, the United States Department of Agriculture awarded two “Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities” grants for two separate Arizona projects. One of them, the Arizona Alliance for Climate-Smart Crops spearheaded by the University of Arizona, focuses on growing select desert-adapted crops, while the other – the $4.9 million Arizona Climate-Smart Practices Program spearheaded by the AACD – is focused on creating a program for producers in Arizona to adopt practices that will provide beneficial ecosystem services such as improving water infiltration in soils (meaning more water will be captured when it rains, which is critical in our arid landscapes) and increasing carbon sequestration (helping to draw down carbon from the atmosphere). 

Deborrah Smith, the Executive Director of AACD, explains that climate-smart practices are not new: “It’s important for the public to understand that producers have been doing some of these practices for quite some time. Now, through this grant, we will be able to track and report what producers have been doing for decades and show that it’s reducing greenhouse gases and benefiting the land. There is also a consumer education component to the grant to teach people about how these practices can reduce GHGs, which benefits them as well.” Moreover, the grant will incentivize producers not currently utilizing conservation practices to begin implementing them. 

Arizona has been particularly impacted by climate change because of extended megadrought conditions, making climate-smart solutions a necessary part of the state’s future and ability to grow food and fiber for its growing population. Developing a program to help more producers implement climate-smart practices is also very timely for another reason.

“Governor Katie Hobbs has recently created an Arizona Comprehensive Climate Action Planning Group to implement climate-smart measures and activities to help reduce greenhouse gases by 2050. AACD is participating in the group, and we are excited to highlight how the Climate-Smart Practices Program has already jump-started things. We are eager to discuss how the governor’s new climate action planning group can help support these efforts,” says Smith.

The Arizona Climate-Smart Practices Program is a concerted statewide effort to engage Arizona producers in implementing conservation, organic, and regenerative practices and integrating Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK) in the program design. Additionally, program partners will conduct outreach and consumer awareness by explaining what climate-smart practices are in accessible ways, telling the stories of the farmers and ranchers implementing them, and developing markets so people and food buyers can support the Arizona producers working to improve soil health, conserve water, and sequester carbon. 

“What is the Difference between the Arizona Climate-Smart Practices Program and the Arizona Alliance for Climate-Smart Crops?”

Arizona Climate-Smart Practices Program

  • Incentivizes climate-smart agricultural practices such as planting diverse cover crops, crop rotation, mulching, low or no tillage, prescribed grazing, improving energy efficiencies, and nutrient management

  • Creating, implementing, and verifying a conservation plan with assistance from the Arizona Association of Conservation Districts

  • Five-year grant cycle with cash incentives for producers of $16,000/year for up to three years for implementing and verifying practices through a conservation plan

  • Other resources offered such as as biocontrols, biostimulants, and biofertilizers, to aid in transitioning to climate-smart practices

  • Enrolls both early adopters already using conservation practices as well as producers interested in implementing one or more conservation practices for the first time

  • Spearheaded by the Arizona Association of Conservation Districts in partnership with: Arizona State University - Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, and Morrison Institute of Public Policy; Northern Arizona University; Soil Health Institute; the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension; Pinnacle Prevention; Indian Nations Conservation Alliance; Duncan Family Farms; Organic Trade Association; and Local First Arizona

Arizona Alliance for Climate-Smart Crops

  • Incentivizes growing climate-smart crops, such as agave and other succulents, prickly pear, tepary beans and other legumes, while also using at least one conservation practice

  • Three-year grant cycle with cash incentives for producers at $11,000/year for up to three years. Application cycles open annually.

  • Support for farmers in identifying crops and varieties adapted to current and future climate conditions and trialing climate-smart practices such as alley cropping, conservation cover, multi-story cropping, agrivoltaics, and reduced/no-till

  • Receive assistance in the marketing of climate-smart and desert-adapted crops and products 

  • Spearheaded by the University of Arizona - School of Geography, Development and Environment in partnership with: Arizona Sonora Desert Museum; University of Arizona - College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences; University of Maryland - Center for Environmental Science; and Local First Arizona

Oatman Farms cover crops and livestock

What are Climate-Smart Practices?

Over the next couple of years, the Good Food Finder platform run by Local First Arizona, a partner in the Arizona Climate-Smart Practices Program, will be spotlighting what climate-smart practices look like around the state and telling the stories of the farmers and ranchers dedicated to growing and raising food in ways that help mitigate climate challenges and reduce greenhouse gases. 

There are two ways to participate in the grant program: either as an early adopter or as a conventional producer who will implement climate-smart agriculture practices and activities. Early adopters, or those producers and tribal communities already using organic, regenerative, ITEK, and conservation practices, will help demonstrate the benefits of doing agriculture in these ways and will collaborate with other conventional producers in adopting the practices that work best for their context. As other producers transition to implementing climate-smart practices, grant partners will share their journeys and ways that communities and consumers can support them. 

Below are brief descriptions of the targeted Arizona Climate-Smart Practices and the benefits that they provide to the soil, land, water, and animals – which, ultimately, enhances the quality and diversity of the food that we eat and the environments that we live in. 

Conservation Cover

This practice involves establishing and maintaining permanent vegetative cover, or simply put, keeping the ground covered with typically native perennials (plants that live more than at least two years and regrow each spring). Conservation cover provides habitat for pollinators and other wildlife and can include plants like native and non-native grasses, legumes, and forbs. This practice can improve ground and surface water quality, prevent erosion, reduce particulate matter emissions, improve soil health, and protect wildlife. 

Cover Crop 

Cover cropping involves planting annual crops (plants that live for only one growing season and then die) for seasonal vegetative cover. Planting diverse cover crops, such ryegrass, barley, oats, and legumes, help to maintain or increase soil organic matter, protect the soil from extreme temperatures (by keeping it cooler during the summer and warmer during the winter), and keep living roots in the soil, which increases microbial growth and activity. Legumes used as cover crops can also add nitrogen naturally back to soils, which is important for areas that are growing crops requiring high amounts of nitrogen, such as corn fields. 

Crop Rotation

Rotating a planned sequence of crops on the same plot of land helps boost soil health, increase biodiversity, and enhance crop yields naturally. By switching and diversifying the types of crops grown on the same field, this can disrupt the life cycles of pests and diseases and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This age-old practice can help ensure our lands are fertile and productive for generations to come.

No Till or Reduced Till

No Till and Reduced Till focus on managing the amount, orientation, and distribution of crop and other plant residue on the soil surface year-round. By limiting soil-disturbing activities such as tilling, meaning digging, stirring, or overturning soil, that release carbon and disrupt soil structures and mycelium networks, farmers can not only reduce erosion but also improve soil health, increase water infiltration to hold more of the water that falls on the land, and store more carbon in the ground.  

Prescribed Grazing

Prescribed grazing is a planned grazing system involving an orderly sequence of grazing and resting grassland. Nearly all pastures have areas where livestock concentrate, such as around water, bedding grounds, and feeding grounds. If the pasture is continuously used, these areas become overused, resulting in pasture deterioration. Grazing and resting grasslands in a planned sequence, such as by dividing pastures into smaller areas or paddocks and rotating livestock based on contextual considerations, can improve the health of plants, by giving them an opportunity to grow, and animals, by increasing the diversity and quality of pasture forage. Improved grass conditions increase livestock production, improve wildlife habitat, reduce soil erosion, and conserve water. By resting pastures, overused areas are allowed to become productive.

Mulching

Mulching – or covering the ground with organic material like wood chips, crop residue, leaves, and compost– conserves water, suppresses weeds, and protects the soil against extreme temperatures. Layering mulch creates a barrier that retains moisture, enhances soil fertility by releasing nutrients from the breakdown of organic matter, and stabilizes soil temperature, which, in turn, helps crops thrive even in harsh conditions, such as Arizona summers.  

Nutrient Management 

Nutrient Management is the management of nutrients and soil amendments to maximize their economic benefit while minimizing their environmental impact. Proper nutrient management can include applying commercial fertilizers, manure, soil amendments, and organic by-products to agricultural land while also addressing the associated risks of applying nutrients in protecting local air, soil, and water quality. Poor nutrient management can lead to less nutrient-dense crops, the need to to apply more chemical inputs, and land degradation.    

Energy, Combustion, & Electricity Efficiency

Improving farm efficiency with smart energy solutions can reduce energy consumption and costs. By upgrading to energy-efficient facilities and equipment and adopting savvy management strategies, farmers and ranchers can reduce their input costs and benefit from current federal programs, such as the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), which offers federal grants and loans to help agricultural producers implement renewable energy installations and efficiency updates on farms, such as adding solar panels to a barn, updating refrigeration to a more efficient system, or energy intensive operations like processing and washing/packing. 

How Producers Can Participate in the Program (and Get Paid to Do So!)

Asking producers to transition to climate-friendly practices can be challenging; it means taking on more risk in an already risky agriculture industry. Therefore, the Climate-Smart Practices Program will pay farmers and ranchers to implement and annually certify a conservation plan, developed in partnership with AACD. Participants will be paid $16,000/year for a total of up to three years. 

Such incentivization is crucial; Smith explains, “If we want producers to change their ways, we need to show them that they are not going to lose income and bear all the risk. This is why the incentive part of the program is so important. It’s a way to incentivize them to try adopting climate-smart practices.”

The program will also provide opportunities for peer-to-peer and cross-cultural learning from other producers and Native partners and develop training guides and resources on climate-smart practices. Additionally, other tools will be offered, such as biocontrols, biostimulants, and biofertilizers, to aid in transitioning to climate-smart practices.

If you are a producer who would like to participate in the Arizona Climate-Smart Practices Program, please fill out an application and send it in an email to Deborrah Smith at smith.aacd@gmail.com. The downloadable digital online application is here and a downloadable printable version is here. 

Pinnacle Prevention, a grant partner, is hosting listening sessions for producers to contribute their input together with other farmers and ranchers in their region on what climate-smart agriculture looks like for Arizona. Learn more and register for the upcoming October 2024 Northern Producers listening sessions - October 3rd in Camp Verde and October 9th in Tuba City (Tribal-focused). 

How Consumers Can Support Arizona Producers Using Climate-Smart Practices 

Oatman Farms cover crop and livestock

A key to ensuring the success of the Climate-Smart Practices Program will be to create markets and consumer demand for climate-smart products. By generating higher value and demand for climate-smart products, farmers and ranchers will benefit from new revenue streams and diverse market channels. Supporting local producers using climate-smart practices is not only beneficial for ecosystems, but also a tangible way to show that we value our local farmers and ranchers. 

Smith emphasizes that knowing where your food comes from and supporting those who grow it is an everyday act that can have an impact. “When I'm in the grocery store, I’m always checking where something comes from, and I choose locally-grown first. Support has to come from the consumers. Buy as much local as possible. I’m always looking for the local branding and then I buy that, even if it does cost a bit more.”

As a partner of both grant projects, Local First Arizona plans to lead the development of a local climate-smart, desert-adapted logo that will make it easier for consumers to support these producers.

Below are ways that people can stay in the loop on the progress of the Arizona Climate-Smart Practices Program, watch and read the stories of your local climate-smart farmers and ranchers,  and learn where to purchase products: 

To Learn More & Get Involved:

Danielle Corralclimate smart, climate smart grant, arizona climate smart practices