The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, a historically Black educational institution, is participating in a new project with Cornell University to expand research, outreach, and workforce development opportunities in digital agriculture for students and local farmers.
Co-led by Shahidul Islam, professor and director of UAPB’s Regulatory Science Center, and Adedeji Adetunji, assistant professor of agriculture at UAPB, the project leverages resources from the Cornell Agriculture Systems Testbed and Demonstration Site (CAST), an initiative that transforms Cornell’s commercial-scale crop and dairy farms into a living laboratory for climate-smart, data-driven agriculture. CAST provides sensors, robotics, analytics, and decision-making support tools to the Cornell University Ruminant Center, Musgrave Research Farm, and the Teaching Dairy Farm to provide real-world testing services for farmers and industry collaborators.
As part of the new project with UABP, CAST will work with leaders at the HBCU to improve outreach efforts to diverse, small, and limited-resource farms. Additionally, the universities will develop a virtual introductory digital agriculture course, as well as research and extension opportunities for students. This summer, the two partnering institutions kicked off the CAST Farm of the Future Summer Internship Program, which allowed five UABP students to present posters at Cornell and participate in a panel discussion regarding the challenges and opportunities in applying digital agriculture across multiple disciplines.
“This collaboration connects classroom learning with hands-on technology evaluation in CAST’s farm environments,” said Dr. Islam. “Together, UAPB and Cornell are building pathways for students and producers to engage with cutting-edge agricultural research.”
