Florida Stakeholder Engagement Program (STEP) Cotton Competition sponsored by the University of Florida

Are you a farmer, crop consultant or industry professional passionate about sustainable agriculture and eager to showcase your skills in cotton production? Then the Florida Stakeholder Engagement Program (STEP) Cotton Competition, sponsored by the University of Florida’s West Florida Research and Education Center (WFREC), is one you should participate in! We’re thrilled to announce that we’re recruiting teams for this exciting competition, and we’re calling on farmers, crop consultants or industry professionals to participate and be part of this science-based education and outreach initiative.

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What is the STEP Cotton Competition?

The STEP Cotton Competition is an innovative initiative aimed at engaging farmers and other agricultural stakeholders in friendly crop management competitions focused on input use efficiency and profitability. The program creates a shared learning experience for growers, industry representatives, policymakers, researchers, and extension agents. The goal is to improve crop management and increase the adoption of Agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) to sustain agriculture and protect water quality. More information about the program and its mission can be found at https://step.ifas.ufl.edu/.

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Why Participate?

Participating in the STEP Cotton Competition offers numerous benefits for producers, researchers, and industry professionals alike:

1. Showcase Your Expertise: Demonstrate your knowledge and management skills in cotton production using new and emerging technologies to a broader audience, including industry experts, researchers, and fellow farmers in a risk-free environment.
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2. Peer-to-peer interaction: Connect with fellow participants, industry professionals, and academic experts to expand your network and exchange ideas.
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3. Skill Development: Hone your skills in agronomy, crop management, precision agriculture, and sustainability while tackling real-world challenges.
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4. Recognition: Showcase your innovative solutions and compete for recognition and monetary awards in various categories, including highest yield, high efficiency, profitability and more.

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Timeline for the Competition

• Team Recruitment (March): Gather your team of enthusiastic individuals passionate about sustainable agriculture and cotton production. Teams can consist of growers, crop consultants, industry professionals, extension personnel, researchers, or a combination thereof.
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• Orientation and Training (April): Participating teams will attend an orientation session where they will receive guidelines, resources, and training on the competition rules, training on STEP website sustainable farming practices, and research methodologies.
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• Field Work and Data Collection (May – August): Teams will have the opportunity to select seven management decisions (shown in Figure 1) and monitor cotton growth and development throughout the growing season. The project management team at WFREC will implement decisions and collect all the data for the participating teams. All data will be shared with participating teams.
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• Data Analysis and Reporting (September – October): After harvesting, the project management team will analyze the data, draw conclusions, and prepare comprehensive reports outlining the findings, challenges, and recommendations.
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• Presentation and Awards Ceremony (November): The project management team will present the findings of the competition and announce winners in two categories who will be awarded monetary prizes.

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Figure 1. Management decisions for STEP cotton competition.

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How to Get Involved

If you’re interested in participating in the STEP Cotton Competition, or learning more about how you can participate as a team member or sponsor, please contact your county extension agent, Hardeep Singh, Cropping Systems Specialist – Hardeep.singh1@ufl.edu, 405-762-2539, or Vivek Sharma –  vsharma1@ufl.edu, 402-419-1687. Additionally, you can also enter your team by visiting at https://step.ifas.ufl.edu/team-registration/.

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Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of an exciting initiative driving innovation and sustainability in cotton production!

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Hardeep Singh

Assistant Professor- Cropping Systems Specialist at UF-WFREC

Dr. Singh’s research focuses on utilizing a systems approach to enhance and evaluate the sustainability, profitability, and delivery of ecosystem services of traditional agriculture (row crops) and emerging cropping systems. His research program focuses on developing improved integrated crop fertility management tools and technologies for increasing the sustainability of cropping systems in the Southeast. Much of his work centers on nutrient mineralization and improved nutrient synchronization to increase nutrient use efficiency and reduce losses to the environment. Additionally, his work incorporates enhanced efficiency fertilizers, precision agriculture applications, crop physiological responses to fertility, and utilizing cover crops for improving soil health. Although his focus is on crop fertility, program remains responsive to critical industry needs. This necessitates research on critical topics that affect existing and novel cropping systems for the region, such as disease management, genotype evaluation, basic agronomy, phenology tracking for modeling purposes, and precision agriculture applications.

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