Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** california's SAN joaquin valley – a…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** california's SAN joaquin valley – a major agricultural region – faces transformative change. Local agencies are advancing actions to achieve groundwater sustainability, but this could result in at least 500,000 acres of cropland losing reliable access to irrigation. Our prior research shows that water-limited systems (dryland crops, especially with small amounts of supplemental irrigation to aid establishment) hold promise for stewarding lands facing irrigation cutbacks. These systems could provide a high-value use of water and a cost-effective way to manage hydrologic risk and reduce soil erosion and dust-related externalities of land fallowing. But many knowledge gaps remain. This interdisciplinary project will support data-informed land use decisions to manage water demand. Three inter-related activities will address knowledge gaps: 1) trialing and fine-tuning water-limited crops and management systems, 2) quantifying the implications of these systems for local water balances, AND3) advancing appropriate valuation of CO-benefits of these systems relative to fallow, including dust mitigation in low-income rural communities. The broad aim is to generate agronomic, hydrological, and economic insights on the system-level benefits and tradeoffs at play in transitioning to water-limited cropping systems. This work will help land-use planners, resource managers, and public agencies at all levels understand where cropping system transitions may deliver net benefits for a broad set of stakeholders while also tracking and minimizing potential harm to vulnerable populations. Our focus is on the SAN joaquin valley, but the research is relevant for a much broader region of the western U.S. Facing growing water scarcity in a changing climate.