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 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...
This Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program (CFDA 10.212) provides $645,887 to Irrigation For The Future Inc. to develop and demonstrate an advanced irrigation decision support system (DSS). The key products and services to be delivered include: An auto-calibration system that uses adaptive feedback and remote sensing data to optimize the modeling algorithms in the...
This $10,000,000 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 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, and community systems in response to water scarcity challenges in the western U.S. caused by climate change. Key products and...
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...
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....
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 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (CFDA 10.310 - Agriculture and Food Research Initiative) provides $649,965 to Texas A&M Agrilife Research to develop an Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS) called EcoHAWQS@Farm. The IDSS will help small and medium-scale farmers and local soil and water conservation managers assess the risks and benefits of adopting new conservation management practices to respond to drought and...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded a $300,000 Project Grant under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) CFDA 10.310 program to the University of Nebraska. The goal of this 2-year grant, awarded on December 1, 2024, is to design, develop, and deploy new digital twin systems for crop growth modeling to enable smart irrigation management, known as the "CropTwin" system. The key research tasks include...
This $169,038 Formula Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Smith-Lever Extension Funding program (CFDA 10.511) supports the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in delivering research-based educational outreach, technical assistance, and applied research focused on drought issues, climate resiliency, and water management in Nevada. The grant funds a range of programs and initiatives, including the "Water of the...
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 project will involve field studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, Texas A&M AgriLife Research in Bushland, TX, and the University of California, Davis. The DSS will be compatible with various center pivot and linear move irrigation systems, and will incorporate crop water use and yield models. The project will result in the release of the DSS source code to the public, along with training workshops for agricultural researchers, extensionists, and consultants. Sub-awards to the Agricultural Research Service and UC Davis will support sensor development, crop modeling, and field testing components of the project.