Teams Forming for USDA Water Funding

by Rick Koelsch, March 26, 2014

USDA NIFA announced its request for proposals (RFA) for the “Water for Agriculture Challenge Area” recently.  UNL faculty eams are forming now to respond to a “Letter of Intent” deadline of April 14.

The RFA (http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri.html ) targets development of Integrated proposals that requires involvement of at least two of the three (research, teaching, and extension) functions within the proposal.  No more than two-thirds of the budget can be dedicated to one function.  Although integrated projects are typically research led, extension led projects are encouraged and often successful because of their uniqueness. Projects can be up to $1 million per year for up to 5 years.

The call for proposals focuses on five themes:

• How will climate change affect the quantity and quality of water for agricultural use? How can agriculture adapt to these changes?
• How can the quality of water for agricultural use be sustainably improved?
• How will agricultural water use be sustained and become more water-use efficient, conserving, and less polluting?
• What scientific information is necessary for future public policy?
• How will new knowledge be delivered to agricultural and non-agricultural water users?

These are shortened summaries of the five NIFA challenges.  See the RFA for more detail.

Several discussions have occurred over the last several months and teams are forming to assemble Letters of Intent by April 17.  Here are some early suggestions for who you might contact if you would like to connect with one or more of these teams:

• Suat Irmak: Regional implementation of the Ag Water Management Network (Extension led project).
• Gui Baigorria: Emphasis on crop/climate/water use modeling.
• Jun Wang/Bob Oglesby/Clint Rowe: Impact of climate on water availability for irrigation.
• Derrel Martin/Francisco Munoz-Arriola:  methodologies to predict how land and water use management impact the health of agro-ecosystems and the economic vitality of the watershed.
• Tala Awada and others – understanding implications of public policy and education on crop producer and water use and/or cropping systems/practices.  Focus on social sciences (human behavior, economics, etc.)
• Chittaranjan Ray: Water quality implications.

Beyond Dr. Irmak’s plan, most groups have focused primarily on the research component of their project.  To be successful each of these teams will need to develop a strong Extension or Education plan to be a part of their proposal.  This is an opportunity for Extension faculty to connect with one or more of these teams and to play a key role in planning an Extension water component for a proposal.  But those connections and preliminary plans need to be developed now for an idea to be successful at this letter of intent phase. Don’t delay in making a connection with one of the above teams.