MU says $10 million grant will double cover crops

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The University of Missouri said Monday that an agricultural researcher received a $10 million grant that will double the area of cover crops used in the United States by 2030.

Rob Myers, director of MU's Center for Regenerative Agriculture, will lead a team of 14 MU faculty members and dozens of scientists, states and companies to increase cover crop use, the university said in a news release. The USDA project is meant to help farmers protect the land from severe weather and a changing climate.

Cover crops are crops that are grown to cover the land between harvesting and planting of the primary crop.

“Whether it’s cover crops or other plants, we tend to just notice the part of the plant we can see above the ground, but the roots below the ground are equally important," Myers said in the release. "One challenge is that we currently don’t know a lot about how different varieties of cover crops perform with the growth of the roots because we can’t see it. For this project, we will examine how different cover crop roots help put carbon in the soil, which is a helpful adaptation in the midst of climate change.”