Project Grant 1501791

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a $745,200 Project Grant under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) to the Board Of Regents Of The Nevada System Of Higher ED, doing business as the University Of Nevada, Reno. This grant aims to develop an open-source, site-specific irrigation decision support system (DSS) to help farmers in the western U.S. more effectively manage deficit irrigation for crops like alfalfa, corn, and cotton....

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $650,000 Project Grant under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA #47.084) program to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Office of Research Administration. The grant supports the development of a user-tailored irrigation water management decision-support hub focused on California's Central Valley. The project aims to provide individual growers with high-resolution, daily irrigation advice by integrating satellite...

The Department of Agriculture National Resources Conservation Service awarded a $1,658,031 Project Grant to the University of Florida (UF) through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (CFDA 10.912) to advance precision variable rate irrigation (VRI) technology. This 4-year project aims to optimize crop water productivity and environmental sustainability in Florida, Georgia, and Minnesota. The project will evaluate VRI systems and multi-mode sensor technologies to improve on-farm...

The Lower Republican Natural Resources District in Nebraska will install telemetry equipment on 1,057 irrigation flow meters and other water management sensors, as well as eight solar-powered weather stations across the district, to improve on-farm water management and reporting through real-time water use data collection and broadcasting under a $4,360,858 Project Grant from the Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation. Funded through Reclamation's WaterSMART program, the project aims...

The University of Florida was awarded a $1,615,906 Project Grant from the US Department of Agriculture National Resources Conservation Service under the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (CFDA 10.913). The grant will fund efforts to enhance irrigation management in vegetable farms in the Southeast US through February 2025. Specifically, the University of Florida will develop high spatial and temporal resolution root zone and soil moisture maps to support irrigation management and water...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a $740,000 Project Grant under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program to Colorado State University (CSU) to develop and pilot an integrated software technology to help agricultural producers make smart irrigation water and nutrient management choices. The project aims to improve crop yield, conserve water, and enhance water quality by assimilating interconnected soil moisture,...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a $748,809 Project Grant under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) to Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) to develop an integrated computational modeling process that quantifies the benefits of precision irrigation and nutrient management in humid agricultural regions under climate change. The key objectives are to: 1) integrate sensors and machine...

This $1.17 million Project Grant from the Department of Agriculture's National Resources Conservation Service through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program will fund Worcester Polytechnic Institute's development of an AI-based radar system to increase irrigation efficiency on megafarms by at least 50%. Michigan Technological University will provide technical support through the development of a fast full-waveform inversion technique integrated with machine learning and Bayesian simulation...

This federal Project Grant award for $601,248, awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program, aims to develop an automated soil moisture monitoring system for precision agriculture. The key products and services to be delivered include: Design, simulation, and characterization of passive soil moisture sensing coils that can measure soil moisture without requiring a power source. Development of machine...

This Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program provides $300,000 to design, develop, and deploy a new digital twin system called CropTwin for smart irrigation management. The CropTwin system will include three core research tasks: cost-efficient IoT systems, automatic digital twinning, and smart irrigation solutions. The project will be conducted at the...