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USDA Invests in Research on Next Gen Agricultural Technology
Ohio Ag Connection - 10/18/2017

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Tuesday 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 (AFRI), authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.

"Technology is front and center in agricultural production," said NIFA Director Sonny Ramaswamy. "NIFA is investing in research on precision and smart technologies to maximize production efficiencies, including water and fertilizer use, and to produce nutritious food, new biofuels, and bioproducts."

AFRI is America's flagship competitive grants program for foundational and translational research, education, and extension projects in the food and agricultural sciences. AFRI's Agriculture Systems and Technology grants support the design and engineering of agricultural production systems and research on the burgeoning field of biomass, biofuels, feedstock, bioenergy, and bio-based products. These projects are expected to spur innovation in rural America and contribute to rural prosperity.

Included among the grants announced today 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. Fiscal Year 2016 grants totaling $7.3 million included The Ohio State University, Columbus, which will receive $482,448 for Bioprocessing and Bioengineering.

Previously funded projects include an Oregon State University project to develop wireless sensors to study flight behavior of native pollinators associated with agricultural crops. This project will shed light on bumble bees' flight patterns to help efforts to sustain their populations. Researchers at Iowa State University are developing a low-cost electronic sensor to monitor, in real-time, excess nitrate levels in surface water that are a major environmental and health concern. This technology may help landowners and governments in their conservation efforts by circumventing the need to collect water samples for lab analysis.


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