Grain Farming without Subsidies - Sabbatical to Argentina

This grant application fits under Integrated, FASE, Strengthening, Sabbatical. The United States is under increasing pressure by the World Trade Organization to reduce and/or remove agricultural subsidies from grain farming. New and younger farmers tend to operate small- and medium-sized grain farms and could be the most impacted by reductions in subsidies. They need to learn how grain farming operates with no subsidies, allowing them to prepare in case subsidies are lowered. Argentina is a country with no agricultural subsidies or safety nets and little support of research and extension. In Argentina, farmers grow crops under very different management and learning structures. The combination of similar cropping systems between the U.S. and Argentina along with very different farm policy structures makes the Argentine grain system extremely interesting to study. The ultimate goal ofthis project is to improve the economic and agronomic sustainability of small- and medium-sized farmers in the U.S. Three primary objectives of the proposed sabbatical to Argentina are: 1) Learn more about the Argentine learning groups known as CREA and identify concepts that might apply in the U.S.; 2) Identify researchable ideas for the U.S.; and 3) Develop a full grant proposal to implement some or the entire CREA model and systems research ideas in the U.S. with small and medium-sized farms. Visits will occur with in Argentina with farmers, agronomists, learning groups and researchers. The sabbatical will end in the U.S. with two months to finish reports, meet with colleagues and develop a full proposal.