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This was not your typical class trip. The group of agriculture students from Honduras who visited USDA’s National Soil Dynamics Laboratory (NSDL) in Auburn, Alabama, were given tours of a one-of-a kind research facility that features, among other things, 13 soil bins, about the length of football fields, that look like huge outdoor bowling lanes. These gigantic soil bins have a special purpose: they are used to study the effects of farm machinery on the soil.
The NSDL, operated by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), has played a key role over the years in helping farmers in southeastern United States produce quality food in sustainable, economical and environmentally friendly ways. Built in 1935, the NSDL was the world’s first full-size outdoor laboratory for tillage tools and traction equipment. Work there has influenced the design of almost all modern agricultural equipment and is credited with spawning the scientific discipline of soil dynamics. The site has been designated as an historic landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Society of Agricultural Engineers.
This was the third year that undergraduates from the National University of Agriculture of Honduras visited the laboratory. For most of them, the trip was their first outside their country. What the students learn often helps them come up with ideas for their own research projects. They also develop important contacts, and some return to the States after graduation to earn graduate degrees and do research.
The laboratory is on the campus of Auburn University, and the visit was organized by the university’s College of Agriculture. Along with the tour, the students listened to NSDL scientists explain their research. Much of the research at the laboratory is focused on how different agricultural practices, such as conservation tillage, affect things like farm productivity, soil erosion and compaction, and the soil’s ability to store carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
As in previous years, the students impressed the scientists with their drive, enthusiasm and curiosity. “They asked extremely good questions and were very interested in applying what they learned here to problems and issues facing the agricultural systems that they are studying and working with in Honduras,” said Leah Duzy, an ARS agricultural economist who met with the group.
Students from the school in Catacamas have been visiting this country since 2000. The group of 260 students visited for two weeks last fall, and fanned out to 9 U.S. universities and agricultural research facilities. The students who chose the NSDL tour were all studying agriculture. Members of the tour group studying other subjects visited other locations.
“Based on the questions they asked, I think they are concerned about many of the same issues that concern us here, such as weed control, soil erosion and the economic implications of different management practices, like using cover crops,” said Juan Rodriguez, an ARS support scientist at NSDL who served as interpreter for the visit.