The National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a $10 million Project Grant to the University of California, Merced under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive federal grant program (CFDA #10.310) for the period of September 1, 2021 through August 31, 2026. The grant will support the development of new water management strategies, decision-making tools, and institutional designs for agricultural regions and ecosystems in the Western U.S. facing climate change and...
This $10,000,000 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program supports the "Resilient Agriculture-Water Community Systems: Transcending Water Scarcity with Community-Based and Networked Western Water Management Solutions" project. The project aims to develop resilient agriculture-water-community systems in the western U.S. by addressing water scarcity...
This Project Grant award, valued at $650,000 and awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program, aims to empirically assess the importance and sustainability of adaptive irrigation under climate change. The three key objectives are: 1) estimating the link between extreme heat and adaptive irrigation, 2) predicting groundwater stock dynamics under climate change, and 3) analyzing...
This $10,000,000 Project Grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The grant aims to address the challenges of declining water levels in the Ogallala-High Plains Aquifer in the Southern Great Plains region through an integrated approach of research, education, and extension programs. Key focus areas include: Socio-economic research and producer-led initiatives to...
The Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a $650,000 Project Grant under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program to the Regents of the University of California at Riverside. The three-year grant project, running from January 2022 through December 2025, will assess the impacts of climate change-induced water scarcity on California's irrigated agricultural sector and evaluate the effectiveness of various on-farm, public, and political...
The federal Project Grant award of $999,091 from the USDA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program, effective July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2027, will support research to quantify field to basin-scale water needs and evaluate the conserved consumptive water use from previous water conservation investments in the Southwest and Southern Plains regions. The goal is to understand realistic water savings from conservation investments in these areas facing increasing droughts and...
This $899,202 project grant, awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (CFDA 10.310), aims to address the challenges of water scarcity and groundwater nitrate contamination faced by agricultural communities in California's Central Coast region. Through a combination of controlled trials and on-farm participatory research, the project will investigate how different cover crop management practices can...
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,...
This $527,360 Project Grant awarded by the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program will fund research to support evidence-based policymaking for agricultural water conservation. The key objectives of the 3-year project include: 1) collecting irrigation water rights and runoff data to create a geospatial database, 2) exploring the impact of water rights and supply uncertainty on...
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) received a $650,000 Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) federal grant program. The grant supports research addressing four areas outlined under the Hatch Act: plant and animal production, processing and distribution of food/ag products, sustainable agriculture, and soil/water conservation. Specific activities...
This $10 million Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (CFDA #10.310) supports research and outreach activities aimed at sustaining groundwater and irrigated agriculture in the southwestern United States under a changing climate. The University of California, Davis is the primary awardee and receives $10 million for the period of September 1, 2021 through August 31, 2026.
Key activities include developing sustainable irrigated agricultural systems, models and decision support tools for groundwater management, and extension programs on sustainable groundwater use. Sub-awards totaling over $1 million support related work by the Agricultural Research Service, University of Arizona, California State University Fresno, New Mexico State University, and Stanford University. Projects involve field experiments, remote sensing, hydrologic modeling, soil health assessments, desalination research, and educational programming across California, Arizona and New Mexico. The goal is to enhance food and nutritional security in the southwestern U.S. through improved groundwater sustainability and climate change adaptation strategies for irrigated agriculture.