Advancing Markets for Producers

Partnering with Arizona Farmers to Grow Desert-adapted Crops

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We are at a crossroads.

Arizona farmers want to produce food for their communities and keep agriculture in our state, but this is becoming increasingly difficult. Approximately one fifth of Arizona’s water budget for crop irrigation (nearly one million acre-feet) has been lost from use in food production due to water rationing, drought the effects of a warming and drying climate.

Being water-wise means recognizing that we are living in drier and hotter times and producing food using less water.

We will work with farmers to identify crops and varieties adapted to Arizona climate conditions, select desert-adapted seeds and starts, and trial NRCS practices such as alley cropping, cover cropping, adding conservation cover, planting trees and succulents, reducing tillage, multi-story cropping, and installing drip irrigation.

We want to work together to elevate desert-adapted practices and foods.

Through this USDA award, we will provide cash incentives directed at reducing farmers’ input costs, increase farmers’ income and reduce the risk of growing desert-adapted foods. We aim to help your farm get started with new conservation practices that can continue in years to come.

We will support developing consumer awareness of desert-adapted foods and advocate for an understanding of the need for food grown with conservation practices, while promoting participating farms.

Not a farmer? learn how you can still support desert-adapted foods

Farmers Helping Farmers do More with Less Water

Work with us to:

Learn and share regenerative, water-wise farming practices

Lower water use and improve soil health

Reduce farm operating costs

Increase awareness of desert-adapted foods

Plant water-wise crops, including: Agave and other succulents, Prickly Pear, Tepary Beans and other legumes

Promote benefits of desert-adapted plants and keep agriculture in Arizona

Project Incentives Paid Directly to Producers

**+ Marketing assistance for desert-adapted crops**
**Needed from you**:
Continued collaboration through the term of the project
Provide FSA Farm Tract Map and Subsidiary Print
Participate with an effort to develop stable, long-term markets for crops and practices that are incentivized in this project
**Covered Practices:**
Alley Cropping
Conservation Cover
Multi-story Cropping
Reduced/No-till
Tree and Shrub establishment
Cover Crop
Conservation Crop Rotation
Micro Irrigation

Who We Are

We are a diverse team of ecologists, farmers, food marketers, and folks committed to a better food future!

PI, Greg Barron-Gafford, Ph.D., Professor,
School of Geography, Development & Environment, Biosphere2, University of Arizona

Mary Werner, Research Program Administrator, School of Geography, Development & Environment, University of Arizona

Kimber Lanning, Founder and CEO,
Local First Arizona

Patty Emmert,
Director of Resilient Food Systems, Local First Arizona

Alyssa Crijns, Marketing Manager, Local First Arizona

FAQs

Please check back as we build out this based on questions from our partners and interested farmers!

• Actively participate in finding solutions to the challenges specific to Arizona Agriculture with less water in a warming climate.
Learning what will be a viable food source in our state in the next 25 years.
• Financial support: Advancing Markets for Producers offers great financial incentives to farmers for implementing specific NRCS practices with the aim to make lasting changes to farms by learning to crop with less water. These funds are intended to defray the cost of changing crop types, planting practices and to to enable efforts toward developing long term, stable markets for crops/practices implemented on this project.
There is no minimum amount of land required to participate, but since our goal is to help create new markets for these water wise crops and practices, the more land enrolled in the program, the more crops that will be produced.
The farmer must grow one or more of the agreed-upon crops and use at least one of the agreed-upon NRCS practices from our menu of 8 specific practicesThe farmer will provide crop information on their farm and participate fully in the project, allowing for potential measurements of carbon uptake by crops in the field and sharing data such as crop yield, price and buyer/market type; energy use related to irrigation, and water use, specific to crop and practice.
Enrolled farms need to be committed for the life of the USDA AMP project and NRCS practice adoptions are attached to a practice lifespan.
Farmers in the state of Arizona can apply.
Applicants must have an FSA Tract map and a copy of their Subsidiary Print, as well as a Core Customer ID (CCID). All of these are obtained from your local Farm Service Agency. Find your local FSA office in the resources link below.
Yes, the first iteration of this project was called the Arizona Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture.