Transforming Agricultural Systems on Public Lands in the EAA to Support Everglades Restoration
The survival of Florida’s biodiversity and economy is dependent on finding ways to balance farm economics with proper management of water and other natural resources. The state purchase of U.S. Sugar lands in critical areas of south Florida, replacing them with water storage and treatment areas, creates both an opportunity and imperative for new farming systems. These transformed farming system could provide a viable economic and ecological alternative to the reservoirs, STA’s, and flow-way. An agricultural model built around flood-tolerant sugarcane varieties could be compatible with the new visions for EAA lands. Reducing the agricultural intensity of these farms creates the risk or reality of yield reduction and lower farm income, but would allow for water storage, reduced nutrient loads, and muck soil carbon conservation on the farms. Payments for these ecosystem services could offset the loss in crop revenues. Cultivation of flood-tolerant sugarcane allows for temporary storage of water on a field followed by water transfer to an adjacent field. Using this relay approach, a water pulse could be passed down a corridor of fields. The volume of water transported to the south via a pulse way depends largely on the nutrient dynamics of the soil-water system. If the nutrient flux becomes the limiting factor then water volumes sent into the corridors would be limited to the net increase in soil-water storage and ET losses. Including ecosystem services as revenue streams in agricultural business models to compensate for lower yield income requires: (1) quantifying the services delivered, (2) assigning values to the services, and (3) compensating farmers for the quantities delivered. The direct ecosystem services provided by a flood-tolerant sugarcane farming system are (1) water storage, (2) nutrient removal and (3) carbon sequestration. A farming system that significantly reduces soil subsidence and its resulting carbon loss to the atmosphere may be eligible for credit sales on already-existing carbon markets. Farmers and local governments traditionally have been hesitant to consider radically new approaches to agriculture. But facing a significant loss of farms, jobs and tax base creates a receptiveness to change.
- Research Organization:
- Hendry County, Florida
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office
- Contributing Organization:
- Hendry County, Florida
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0000303
- OSTI ID:
- 1337391
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-HENDRYFLA-00303-301
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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