The project will help inform the creation and refinement of best management practices using the efforts, resources and consultation of reclamation, DWR, UC davis and CVP water users (rice farmers)…

The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $1,400,000 Project Grant under the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CFDA 15.512) to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). The 4-year grant, running from August 2024 to December 2028, will fund a study to quantify the full water budget and aquifer recharge for three different rice field management practices in California: growing rice, leaving fields fallow, and planting non-irrigated cover crops.

The study, to be administered by DWR and conducted by the University of California, Davis, aims to inform the development of best management practices for water use in rice farming. Key deliverables include establishing a governance structure, coordinating field selection, installing instrumentation for measurement, analyzing data to calculate water budgets, and ground-truthing remote sensing data. The intended beneficiaries are DWR, the Bureau of Reclamation, and rice farmers in California's Central Valley, in order to optimize farming practices and habitat benefits for fish and waterfowl.

Activities

This proposal will bring together the state DWR and their water portfolio measuring needs, reclamations water portfolio needs and the rice farmers of the cvpia with their water use needs and the technical abilities of UCD in studying the specific issues of rice field farming. The proposal aims to complete this by funding a study administered by the CA DWR and run by UC davis with funding from reclamation for the next three years. Projected deliverables or outcomes: task 1 governance structure establishment. Task 2 coordination for field selection. Task 3 instrumentation and measurement. Task 4 data analysis and water budget calculation. Task 5 ground truth openet based on direct measurementsintended beneficiaries: in order to optimize farming practice and habitat benefit for fish and waterfowl, department of water resources (DWR) will conduct a field study to quantify full water budget for three rice fields, each with a different growing practice for three continuous calendar years: growing rice, bare soil (i.e., fallowed), and non-irrigated cover crops. The project focuses on direct measurements of key variables to support water budget calculation that enables quantification of water use and aquifer recharge under these three different field management practices in california. Subrecipient activities (if known or specified at time of award): N a