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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Resa Ehsani, a UC Merced mechanical engineering professor, is developing a portable water sensor that can be used on all crops for better irrigation scheduling without changing current systems.
An Electric Program Investment Charge Program (EPIC) project, funded by the California Energy Commission, elicited a report from the state agency reviewing how efficient the technology is for agricultural and energy sectors.
The Agriculture Department is launching a $400 million effort with 18 irrigation districts to pay Western farmers to cut back on water use, so long as they promise to keep farming.
Consumer and produce advocacy groups are celebrating the finalization of a highly anticipated rule updating how farms assess pre-harvest water quality, but remain skeptical about implementation measures.
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced a long-awaited final rule imposing requirements on farmers for ensuring that agricultural water doesn't contaminate produce with dangerous pathogens.
The Bureau of Reclamation has inked 82 agreements promising to pay Colorado River water users with Inflation Reduction Act funding if they commit to cutting back on their water usage, an Interior Department leader told a crowd of Western farmers and irrigation district employees at the Family Farm Alliance’s annual conference.
Increasing food production without using additional water and land resources could be possible through further developments in irrigation and water engineer, plant breeding and gene editing, and innovative management of things like heat and sunlight.
The Bureau of Reclamation only plans to allocate 50,000 acre-feet of water to Klamath Basin farmers this year, a drought-inspired move that has producers concerned about the 170,000 acres of cropland they hoped to irrigate.
In water-strapped states like Texas, producers are using irrigation to reap the benefits of cover crops. Producers in other states, while not directly irrigating cover crops, see a benefit in the water requirements of their cash crops.
