Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Uses Old-School Methods to Improve Modern Ag
In partnership with:
Sometimes you have to look to the past to move into the future. Farmers from the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska have learned that by implementing regenerative agriculture on the reservation’s Ioway Farms LLC.
“Regenerative agriculture principles and practices are in alignment with us as Indigenous native people because we farmed in diversity and listened to signs Mother Earth provided,” says Tim Rhodd, chairman. “It means we will be going backward to reintroduce our old ways of agriculture to progress ourselves and Mother Earth forward.”
See more: What Is Regenerative Agriculture?
When the Biden administration introduced the U.S. Department of Agriculture Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiative in November 2022, the tribe had already been using regenerative practices such as multispecies cover crops, diverse crop rotation and no-till farming for over a decade.
Those practices improved the farm’s topsoil quality and quantity and yielded crops that generated enough profit for the tribe to buy nearly 2,500 acres of the 12,000-acre total area the reservation covers, about half of which is still owned by others.
Kansas Native Knowledge
The initiative paves the way for Indigenous farmers to implement more of their traditional principles – like prescribed burning and fish-based fertilizer to restore the soil – alongside regenerative practices already used.
See more: Native Tribe in Oregon Embraces Ranching Business
“The Iowa Tribe and Kansas Wildlife and Parks have teamed up to combat invasive silver carp and big-headed carp from the Missouri River,” Rhodd says. “We will develop natural fertilizer made from the fish to apply to our vegetable and orchard operations.”
Plus, two environmental challenges get improvement at once: using natural fertilizer to restore soil nitrogen and encouraging a native species increase.
As more evidence is gathered to find the tribe’s best practices, everyone can benefit from that knowledge through the Center of Excellence for Regenerative Native Agriculture. It recently received $5 million in USDA Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities funding for a certification program that will help educate any farmer in the Missouri River corridor.
Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska into the Future
“This program is designed to take all the Ioway Farms successes, failures, challenges and solutions, all wrapped in a one-stop shop,” Rhodd says. “Any producer will be welcome to our reservation to attend on-the-farm and in-classroom education.”
What regenerative agriculture means in a single word is hope, he continues.
“We as people and producers need to find a better way to align with Mother Earth and to protect our precious resources our future generations will need,” Rhodd says. “We just need to continue our discussions and efforts today for a better tomorrow.”
To learn more, visit iowatribeofkansasandnebraska.com/ioway-farms.