In the fall of 2022, Texas A&M AgriLife Research received the largest competitive grant in the organization’s history: a $65-million, 5-year, multi-commodity project to work with Texas’ agricultural sector on expanding climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices. The Texas Climate-Smart Initiative was part of a massive investment by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, funding 70 research projects with $2.8 billion. Nithya Rajan, Ph.D., agronomist and Texas A&M University soil and crop sciences professor, is one of the scientists involved in this historic investment.
Rajan studies climate-smart farming practices aimed at increasing the sustainability and productivity of row crop production systems while simultaneously increasing carbon capture and reducing greenhouse gas emissions
Her research team of graduate students and post-doctoral scholars is using cutting-edge technologies in their research, including state-of-the-art instrumentation for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions, modeling, and remote sensing.
Rajan obtained her bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences from Kerala Agricultural University, master’s in soil science and agricultural chemistry from A.N.G.R. Agricultural University in Hyderabad, India, and Ph.D. in agronomy from Texas Tech University. She then worked as a post-doctoral research associate for two years at Texas Tech, and in 2010 joined the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Vernon as an assistant professor of cropping systems agronomy.
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Texas A&M AgriLife’s Nithya Rajan leads innovative research aimed at reducing emissions and sustaining agricultural industries
More Information
- Texas A&M AgriLife To Receive Up To $65 Million For ‘Climate-Smart’ Commodities Project, Texas A&M Today
- Nithya Rajan, Ph.D., Texas A&M University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences
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I would describe myself as a broadly trained agronomist. My current research goal is to provide evidence that these practices are climate-smart and can reduce emissions.
In December 2014, Rajan moved to College Station and joined the faculty in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences.
“I would describe myself as a broadly trained agronomist,” she said. “My current research goal is to provide evidence that these practices are climate-smart and can reduce emissions.”
Cover crops can help
Rajan’s research group is studying and quantifying the impact of cover crops on carbon emissions. Oftentimes, farmers harvest their main crop and then leave the fields fallow until returning the next season to plant and harvest their main crop again, she said.
Rajan's research team of graduate students and post-doctoral scholars is using cutting-edge technologies in their research, including state-of-the-art
instrumentation for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions, modeling, and remote sensing. Photos by Sam Craft, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications.
During that period, high carbon emissions happen if a field is left fallow, she said. This can also lead to a lot of weed pressure and erosion issues. Therefore, Rajan’s team is trying to promote cover crops as a climate-smart agricultural practice that increases overall carbon sequestration and reduces emissions.
“Farmers can plant something during their fallow period to capture more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” she said.
Big projects, big dreams
In Rajan’s lab, they are also studying the climate-smart potential of various irrigation practices, such as center pivot, furrow and subsurface drip. Different irrigation types can differently affect carbon and nitrogen cycling in soil and greenhouse gas emissions.
“We will be comparing climate-smart practices against business-as-usual practices side-by-side, in collaboration with farmers in Texas, and also in other states,” Rajan said.
This research is funded by the climate-smart commodities project and will also involve researchers and cotton fields in California, Mississippi and Georgia.
Rajan’s lab is asking, when farmers implement these practices in a large operation, what will happen? How much emission reduction can we expect? Is that climate-smart? And is that enough?
Texas is the leading state in greenhouse gas emissions, emitting twice the amount of greenhouse gases as California, the next-highest state.
If we can encourage and promote the adoption of these climate-smart practices, that is the dream, to eventually make Texas carbon-neutral.
The state of Texas has an opportunity to reduce its carbon footprint with the help of agriculture, Rajan said. If farmers in Texas can implement climate-smart agricultural practices, that will help reduce the greenhouse gas footprint of Texas.
“If we can encourage and promote the adoption of these climate-smart practices, that is the dream, to eventually make Texas carbon-neutral,” she said.
After several years of working in this field, Rajan is optimistic about the momentum science is gaining at all levels.
“I'm incredibly enthusiastic about this opportunity because I currently feel empowered to make meaningful contributions to the climate-smart practices discussion, which is gaining recognition not just at the national level but also on the international stage," she said. "It's truly gratifying to witness the global impact of the research we are engaged in.”
Rajan with various research groups. Photos courtesy of Nithya Rajan.
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Mackenzie Schneider was a communications intern at Texas Water Research Institute, assisting with social media, helping develop and publish newsletters, and writing and editing news releases and other educational material published by the institute.