COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – A $740,000 federal grant will enable University of Missouri researchers to study the relationship between organic farm crops and greenhouse gas emissions.

Missouri is one of 24 institutions to receive a total of nearly $19 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Scientists at the university’s Bradford Research and Extension Center in Columbia will study carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide gas releases in organic crop soils. The university says more than 60 percent of nitrous oxide emissions are connected to soil management.

Missouri ranks 20th in the country in number of organic farms. But the university reports that those growers are embracing environmentally friendly farming techniques more slowly than their counterparts in other states.