Project Grant R19AP00162

The National Science Foundation awarded a $282,000 Project Grant to Iowa State University under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships federal grant program (CFDA 47.084) to develop soil nutrient and moisture monitoring probe sensors. The university will advance sensors for agricultural monitoring by designing probes integrated with sensors to continuously monitor soil nitrogen, salinity, and moisture levels throughout corn crop cycles up to four months. The probes aim to optimize...

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...

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 $255,663 National Science Foundation Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships project grant funds the development of cosmic ray neutron sensing technology for precision soil moisture measurement by Silverside Detectors Inc. The company aims to address water scarcity challenges in agriculture through an automated, non-invasive soil moisture monitoring system with sub-field resolution. The system would provide irrigation zone-specific soil moisture data to enable optimized water use. This...

Transcend Engineering and Technology, LLC was awarded a $181,395 Project Grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture within the Department of Agriculture under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The grant aims to develop a spatially dense, multi-level soil moisture sensor using commodity radio frequency electronic components to infer soil water content from dielectric properties. Phase I will determine feasibility and quantify tradeoffs between accuracy and...

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 Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service awarded Washington State University a $136,931 project grant under the Agricultural Research Basic and Applied Research program (CFDA 10.001) to determine the efficacy of subsurface drip (SDI) versus surface drip (SD) irrigation delivery methods for optimizing water use in winegrape management. The grant period is from September 1, 2021 through October 31, 2024. As part of the Agricultural Research Basic and Applied Research program's...

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...

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...