Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are collaborating with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to evaluate how individual and combined farm management decisions impact biofuel sustainability and feedstock production. The collaborative research centers around detailed computer models.
CQESTR is the name of one model that predicts how land management practices will influence soil organic carbon, soil organic matter, water, sediment and agricultural chemical accumulation. Another model, PGA-BIOECON, calculates the trade-offs among three important objectives: profitability, water quality and production efficiency. The combination of these and other models makes it easier to understand the trade offs and implications for various crop management decisions.
Read more about this research, and the many models that are being developed and deployed, here.
