THE STUDENT-RUN FARM HELPS PROMOTE THE UNIVERSITY’S SUSTAINABILITY MISSION THROUGH CLIMATE SMART PRACTICES, RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES AND EVENT SUPPORT. THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA AT RENO’S DESERT FARMING INITIATIVE IS PROMOTING CLIMATE SMART FARMING PRACTICES SUSTAINABILITY
T he University of Nevada at Reno is committed to sustainabil- ity and one way the university is working on reaching its sus- tainability goals is through local sourcing. Dining services partners with a handful of local vendors and also puts a marketing push behind their prod- ucts, said Natalie Liggett, sustainability intern at the university. The university also has a new con- tract starting with another local vendor and during the month of November, the sustainability team highlighted lo- cal purchasing as the month’s sustain- ability highlight. “So, we definitely try to get them a good presence on campus,” said Lig- gett. Another way the university uses local sourcing to promote sustainable dining practices is the student-run farm, dubbed the Desert Farming Ini- tiative. BY REYNA ESTRADA
The Desert Farming Initiative be- gan about 10 years ago and has grown to be a large presence on campus with career advancement opportunities, event support and various sustainabil- ity initiatives. Here’s a deep dive into the stu- dent-run farm and the work it’s doing to promote climate-smart practices. The farm produces 30 varieties of certi- fied organic fruits and vegetables using climate smart farming practices, ac- cording to Jill Moe, director of the Des- ert Farming Initiative. The farm gener- ates about 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of produce each year, the majority of which is donated to food pantries and other community food security pro- grams such as the on-campus food pan- try. The rest of the produce is then sent to farmers markets that serve food inse- cure populations. DEMONSTRATING CLIMATE SMART FARMING
“Our mission is to demonstrate ad- vanced climate smart farming and that includes working within our regional food system. So, it’s not just looking at agriculture and it has kind of a broader view,” said Moe. The climate smart approach the team takes in growing produce is root- ed in five key strategies, said Moe. The first, is a focus on soil health with the goal of capturing more water and reducing erosion. Some ways the Desert Farming Initiative is doing this is by reducing tillage by incorporating more perennial crops, hedgerows and permanent insectary features. The team also conducts annual soil testing to track the percentage of organic mat- ter. The second strategy is efficiently managing water resources. Moe and the team are using this strategy in sev- eral ways including field packing pro- duce to reduce water usage, using drip irrigation and monitoring the water us- age of key cash crops. The next strategy is using integrated pest management. The farm is follow- ing an integrated Pest Management plan, which is tailored to known pests and disease. The fourth strategy is to diversify farm enterprises and crop varieties. The team is doing this by balancing crop diversity with team capacity, in- corporating more perennial crops and intercropping cash crops. The last strategy is to engage in farm planning and adaptive management. The farm is doing this by collecting
“
Our mission is to demonstrate advanced climate smart farming and that includes working within our regional food system. So, it’s not just looking at agriculture and it has kind of a broader view.” -Jill Moe
FSD QUARTERLY
Q1 2024
8
PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA AT RENO
Powered by FlippingBook