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FFAR Spurs Tool to Test Bird Flu 

Breakthrough for Field-deployable biosensors for managing animal health

FFAR Spurs Tool to Test for Bird Flu 

FFAR Announces New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Awardees 

The Importance of Healthy Indigenous Food Systems & How to Improve Them  

Portrait of Michael Johnson.

Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson

Assistant Professor - Indigenous ResiliencySchool of Natural Resources & the Environment Indigenous Reliance CenterUniversity of Arizona 

New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award 

Loyalty Shopper Card Intervention Creates Behavior Change 

Breakthrough for Individually-targeted incentives, diet quality and health outcomes among adults

Building Agroecosystem Soil Health to Adapt to Climate and Regulatory Realities while Protecting Rural Community Health 

Year Awarded  2024

FFAR award amount   $439,701

Total award amount   $439,698

Location   Santa Cruz, CA

Grantee Institution   University of California, Santa Cruz

California’s agricultural watersheds face the dual challenge of water scarcity and water quality issues. This research is tackling complex and seemingly unsolvable problems affecting California’s agricultural communities by conducting on-farm work to gather information on how various soil health practices influence carbon, nitrogen and water in soil across diverse regions. The project will combine this data into a causal model that can help determine how different soil health practices will impact carbon sequestration, water scarcity and water quality under different climates and regulations, to increase farmer adoption of the practices.

Leveraging multi-scale datasets and modeling tools for improved soil health and carbon management 

Year Awarded  2024

FFAR award amount   $443,206

Total award amount   $533,038

Location   New York, NY

Matching Funders   Columbia University

Grantee Institution   Columbia University

Farmers and other agricultural decision makers often have trouble accessing reliable soil health information to guide their choices. This project is using existing data along with building new, integrated databases to develop a novel modeling system that combines process-based methods, advanced sensor technologies and stakeholder input to track soil health outcomes better. By delivering timely and interactive information connected to management scenarios, the project aims to help farmers and ranchers adopt practices that improve soil health, reduce nutrient loss and strengthen ecosystem resilience.

Next-generation Sustainable Weed Management Enabled by Micro-targeted Legged Robots 

Year Awarded  2024

FFAR award amount   $450,000

Total award amount   $531,003

Location   Ithaca, NY

Matching Funders   Cotton Incorporated; NC Small Grain Growers Association, Inc.; Z3 Agriculture

Grantee Institution   Cornell University

Weeds are developing herbicide resistance faster than new herbicides can be created. As a result, farmers face lower profits and yields, while greater chemical use threatens soil and water health. Xiang’s research seeks to replace the costly machinery and large quantities of chemicals used for weed control with AI-powered lightweight robots for targeted weed management. These robots can apply micro levels of herbicide at the site of weed growth, reducing chemical use by 99%, lowering costs and limiting farm workers’ exposure to chemicals. This treatment also minimizes field disturbance by protecting crop roots.

Exploring Novel Promoter Alleles for Multiple Vitamin Biofortification Using a Calli-Derived Somatic Embryo Platform 

Year Awarded  2024

FFAR award amount   $448,852

Total award amount   $539,690

Location   Johnson City, TN

Matching Funders   East Tennessee State University

Grantee Institution   East Tennessee State University

While seeds are rich in energy sources, they lack many micronutrients, including multiple vitamins. Although seeds have the genetic potential to create vitamins, researchers struggle to increase seeds’ nutritional value because the synthesis of many vitamins in seeds are not active. Sun’s research is identifying DNA switches in seeds that, when activated, allow targeted gene editing to create biofortified seeds. Sun is also developing a speedier technique for screening DNA for these switches that avoids the time-consuming seed screening process.