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Awarded Grants
Below is a listing of our awarded grants that tackle big food and agriculture challenges.

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14 Grants found

FFAR Grant Promotes Integrated Soil and Water Research to Support Dairy Industry Commitment to Sustainability

U.S. Dairy Net Zero Initiative: Improving Dairy On-Farm Sustainability through Improved Soil Health and Manure Management

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Strategic Fallowing for Sustainable Water and Thriving Agriculture

FFAR Awards $2 Million Grant to Improve Sustainability in Corn Production

Irrigation Innovation Consortium Funds Seven Research Projects

New Crops ATLASS (Analytics Telenetwork: for Landscape, Agronomic, and Sociocultural Scalability)

FFAR Grant Addressing Surface and Groundwater Pollution on Farms

FFAR Awards Grant to Reduce Water Waste in Crop Irrigation

Precision Irrigation Scheduling for Specialty Crops

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Strategic Fallowing for Sustainable Water and Thriving Agriculture

Year Awarded   2021

FFAR award amount   $970,931

Total award amount   $1,941,862

Location   Las Cruces, NM

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   Elephant Butte Irrigation District, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute, Thornburg Foundation

Drought risks continue to challenge farmers in the US Southwest. Leaving cultivated land unused—fallowing—represents a potentially crucial water-saving strategy. However, the costs and benefits of fallowing remain uncertain. NMSU researchers are developing a Hydrologic-Agricultural-Economic model that evaluates alternative fallowing strategies. The researchers will integrate the hydrologic modeling with remote sensing data, field measurements and socioeconomic information to inform where fallowing can optimally provide targeted benefits.

FFAR Awards $2 Million Grant to Improve Sustainability in Corn Production

Year Awarded   2021

FFAR award amount   $2,044,214

Total award amount   $4,089,857

Location   Ames, Iowa

Matching Funders   Iowa State University, Bayer Crop Science, The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Purdue University and Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Maize breeding programs have increased corn yields over the years by altering plant characteristics (traits). Yet, our knowledge on which traits have been changed is limited while their impact on sustainability is relatively unknown. Led by Dr. Sotirios Archontoulis, Iowa State University researchers are examining corn hybrid characteristics at an unprecedented scale to analyze yield trends in the US Corn Belt, which includes most of the Midwest.

U.S. Dairy Net Zero Initiative: Improving Dairy On-Farm Sustainability through Improved Soil Health and Manure Management

Year Awarded   2021

FFAR award amount   $10,000,000

Total award amount   $23,200,000

Location   Rosemont, Illinois

Matching Funders   Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), Newtrient and other Net Zero Initiative partners

Dairy farmers face increasing pressure from the private and public sectors to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This grant to the Dairy Research Institute addresses research gaps in feed production and manure-based products that support the dairy community’s Net Zero Initiative, an industry-wide effort to adopt practices and technologies that reduce GHG emissions and improve environmental health.

Irrigation Innovation Consortium Funds Seven Research Projects

Year Awarded   2021

FFAR award amount   $533,126

Total award amount   $1,512,550

Location   Fort Collins, Colorado

Matching Funders   The consortium, which is headquartered at Colorado State University, includes four other U.S. land-grant universities: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Kansas State University, Texas A&M University and California State University-Fresno. The consortium’s founding and sustaining industry partners are: FFAR, Aqua Engineering, Irrigation Association, JAIN Irrigation, LI-COR, Lindsay Corporation, Northern Water, Valmont, Hunter Industries, Toro, Rubicon, Colorado Corn Growers Association and Senniger Irrigation Inc.

As freshwater resources become ever more precious, research in irrigation technology is critically needed to maximize efficiency. Water use efficiency is necessary to ensure resiliency in agricultural and landscape systems. The Irrigation Innovation Consortium is awarding seven grants tat enable industry and the public sector co-develop, test, prototype and improve equipment, technology and decision-support systems. 

New Crops ATLASS (Analytics Telenetwork: for Landscape, Agronomic, and Sociocultural Scalability)

Year Awarded   2021

FFAR award amount   $966,273

Total award amount   $1,939,773

Location   Salina, KS

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   The Land Institute, The Perennial Agriculture Project

Next-generation perennial grains are domesticated as nutrient-dense crops that can diversify the food supply, increase soil health and reduce irrigated water use. However, researchers do not have enough time and resources to conduct the conventional field research essential to develop reliable future seed supplies and optimize management practices. The Land Institute is implementing a civic science program to work with volunteers, farmers and land-grant extension programs to strategically collect data on cultivating next-generation perennial grains at small scales and test civic science as a method for advancing next-generation crop domestication.

FFAR Grant Addressing Surface and Groundwater Pollution on Farms

Year Awarded   2020

FFAR award amount   $316,000

Total award amount   $632,231

Location   Avondale

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   Stroud Center and the Science Technology and Research Institute of Delaware (STRIDE)

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of chemical compounds used in hundreds of applications. Due to their high thermal stability, resistance to chemical degradation and related waste disposal, PFAS is an environmental concern. Stroud Center researchers, in collaboration with STRIDE Center for PFAS Solutions, are examining the occurrence and migration of biosolid-derived PFAS in soil and water on agricultural fields.

FFAR Awards Grant to Reduce Water Waste in Crop Irrigation

Year Awarded   2020

FFAR award amount   $650,000

Total award amount   $1,300,000

Location   Davis, CA

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   University of California, Davis

Sensors currently available to growers to measure plant water status are prohibitive. UC Davis researchers are developing a small sensor sensitive enough to measure as little as a one percent change in leaf thickness and volumetric water content at the same time. These two measurements provide growers with clear, consistent data to calculate the plant’s water status.

Precision Irrigation Scheduling for Specialty Crops

Year Awarded   2019

FFAR award amount   $500,000

Total award amount   $1,323,242

Location   Boulder, CO

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   The University of Arizona Yuma, Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture, University of California, Western Growers Association

Farmers growing specialty crops deal with a multitude of complexities such as lacking access to cost-effective irrigation guidance tools. Specialty crops are often over-irrigated which can jeopardize food security. GeoVisual Analytics researchers are improving irrigation guidance and grower adoption of precision irrigation technologies by analyzing data and field measurements.

Irrigation Innovation Consortium

Year Awarded   2018

FFAR award amount   $5,000,000

Total award amount   $10,000,000

Location   Fort Collins, CO

Matching Funders   Aqua Engineering Inc., Colorado Corn, Colorado State University, Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska (DWFI), Fresno State Center for Irrigation Technology, Irrigation Association (IA), Jain Irrigation, Kansas State Research and Extension - Kansas State University, Lindsay Corporation, Northern Water, Rubicon Water, Senninger Irrigation Inc., Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Valmont

The Irrigation Innovation Consortium is a joint initiative between private, public and university organizations to address water scarcity in the western US and worldwide.

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