What is the problem?

Soil health science is failing to address agricultural sustainability in arid and semiarid regions in the United States and globally. Soil health assessment and management frameworks have been developed by researchers and agricultural stakeholders in wetter climates, but desert croplands have unique soils and environments that require tailored solutions. The science of arid soil health is missing and remains disjointed across many institutions, scientific disciplines, funding agencies, and stakeholder priorities. Therefore, desert agricultural soil health research is under-resourced and under-researched given its large and growing importance to global food production.

What has been done so far to address the problem?

In collaboration with YCEDA and in alignment with the recent University of Arizona Presidential Advisory Commission Report to take actions to sustain soil health and food production in a drying climate, the Desert Agriculture Soil Health Initiative (DASHI) was created in August 2023. Since then, DASHI led the following efforts:

1. Grower and researcher workshops to clarify understanding and knowledge gaps of how to uniquely assess and manage soil health in desert croplands. 

2. Creation of interdisciplinary and interagency research teams to address the highest-priority research needs of desert growers. These needs include a tailored suite of indicators for assessing soil health, soil salinity management using less water, ensuring food safety while optimizing soil health, and validation of techniques to increase production efficiencies and profitability by reducing external inputs.

3. New partnership with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) to create a long-term multimillion-dollar research program leveraging DASHI and YCEDA to sustain the productivity and profitability of desert agricultural systems by enhancing production efficiencies and validating regenerative, soil health-enhancing practices relevant to desert agriculture. The in-person convening in Yuma on December 2-4, 2025 will unite roughly 40 attendees spanning philanthropic foundations, academic and governmental researchers, crop producers, industry trade groups, vegetable buyers and retailers, federal funding agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and tribal communities. This effort will form broad consensus on research priorities that will be implemented through match funding.

4. Acceleration of outreach with industry, agricultural consultants, state government, federal government, nongovernmental organizations, and international philanthropic foundations to increase awareness and funding of desert agricultural soil health research. This included a FFAR-sponsored webinar in January 2025 highlighting the importance of building resilient desert agricultural systems and communities.

The $85,500 in donations from YCEDA members that enabled Dr. Blankinship to launch DASHI has yielded $549,640 in research funding thus far, already yielding a 650% return on investment. Non-YCEDA funds have enabled workshops, fundraising outreach, and research projects to address crop nutrition, soil chemical and biological amendments, Organic practices, cropping rotations (including seasonal fallowing), and exploration of links between lettuce genetics and soil health.

What are the overall impacts so far?

The DASHI research program is a global leader in defining what soil health means in desert croplands, as well as identifying the specific obstacles and knowledge gaps that prevent desert crop producers from effectively managing soil health now and in the future. This research program has also attracted talented academic and governmental researchers in the southwestern United States with broad expertise spanning natural and social sciences who are ready to fill the knowledge gaps and overcome the obstacles identified by desert crop producers.

What is the plan for 2025?