USDA awards 17 grants to fund food, fuel and fiber research

In Washington, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture recently announced 17 grants for research on the next generation of agricultural technologies and systems to meet the growing demand for food, fuel, and fiber. The grants are funded through NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.

Included among the grants announced is a University of California Riverside project that uses electronics and chemistry to recover high-quality water, nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), and energy from agricultural wastewater. Also, researchers at the University of Nebraska are developing an efficient irrigation system that combines imaging sensors on unmanned aerial vehicles, predictions of crop water use, and water sensors in soil.