The AFRI Water for Agriculture Challenge Area focuses on addressing critical water resources issues such as drought, excess soil moisture, flooding, quality, and others in an agricultural context.
Note: This program has been combined into the AFRI Water for Food Production Systems Challenge Area in FY 2017.
Funding will be used to develop management practices, technologies, and tools for farmers, ranchers, forest owners and managers, public decision makers, public and private managers, and citizens to improve water resource quantity and quality. NIFA's approach will link social, economic, and behavioral sciences with traditional biophysical sciences and engineering to address regional-scale issues with shared hydrological processes and meteorological and basin characteristics. The long-term goal of the AFRI Water for Agriculture Challenge Area is to tackle critical water issues with a multi-level approach covering:
- Regional Systems
- Sustainable use and reuse
- Flow and management of water
- Watershed and Farm Scales
- Water issues focused on production and environmental sustainability