An IUPUI faculty member has been awarded a half-million-dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study how farming practices can increase crop resilience to climate change.

The university says the goal of the research will focus on reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture while ensuring sustainable food production.

Researcher Lixin Wang, an associate professor of earth science at the School of Science at IUPUI, says his study will include field research on Indiana farms starting next summer.

“This research aims to understand whether conservation practices of cover cropping and no-till can jointly increase agricultural resilience to climate variability and reduce agricultural environmental impacts,” said Lixin Wang.