2025 Water for Food Global Conference focused on resiliency in water and food security

Nebraska Water Center publishes spring Water Current newsletter

The Nebraska Water Center, part of DWFI, recently published its Spring 2025 Water Current Newsletter.

The newsletter includes the following topics:

• Great Plains Water Conference - September 18-19, 2025
• Staff updates
• Researchers test carbon dioxide sequestration method: Enhanced rock weathering project
• Wood carbon subsoil amendment for sustainable corn production on sandy irrigated soils
• Nebraska Water Center and USDA-ARS host crop modeling workshop
• Nebraska Master Irrigator program to equip growers to lead irrigation innovation
• Irrigation innovation: Educating the next generation of conservation advocates
• Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) expands reach
• New NebGuide: In-season nitrogen management for irrigated corn

Experts stress importance of irrigation to nutrition, health outcomes

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Heuermann Lecture on April 29 featured Claudia Ringler, Ph.D., director of natural resources and resilience at the International Food Policy Research Institute. Her keynote address offered a compelling exploration of the often-overlooked connection between irrigation and nutrition. The lecture was hosted as part of the week-long 2025 Water for Food Global Conference by the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska.

“If you have water security, you are more likely to have food security,” Ringler told a full auditorium at Nebraska’s Innovation Campus. “If you are water insecure you are actually consuming fewer food groups and are more likely to be malnourished.” Yet, she explained, traditional nutrition science has largely overlooked how irrigation influences dietary quality and health outcomes.

Ringler emphasized how irrigation supports food security by extending the growing season, improving crop yields, diversifying food production, supporting animal products (eggs, milk, etc.) and enhancing the effectiveness of other agricultural inputs. “[Through irrigation], we are expanding the growing season. We are improving the cropping index. We are diversifying the production mix,” she said. “We improve the benefits of other inputs such as fertilizers or seed technologies.”

Additionally, in many low- and middle-income countries, irrigation systems often serve dual purposes by supporting not only agricultural production, but also household water needs. “And so, water for domestic uses is also important for nutrition,” Ringler said, stressing that, “to maximize the nutrition benefits from irrigation, we have to pay more attention to domestic water.”

“There are a lot of opportunities to improve,” Ringler said. “And I think Nebraska, with its strong irrigation industry, is well-positioned to lead in this space, in finding ways to produce more with less water.” She noted that there is a direct link between research and development investment and food security, and while there has been significant progress, it has also slowed significantly. Many farmers around the world still lack access to the technologies and practices needed to use water efficiently, improve yields, and support better nutrition.

Ringler emphasized that the relationship between irrigation and nutrition is not a straight line, but intentional planning can help close the gap. She introduced four pathways that can help ensure irrigation systems contribute to improved nutrition:

• Promoting crop biodiversity to increase nutrient density in diets
• Raising household incomes through productive agriculture
• Improving water access for hygiene and sanitation
• Supporting women, who are more likely to be household cooks and child caretakers, to be involved in agricultural irrigation and decision-making, which is linked to reduced child undernutrition.

She also highlighted the dual challenges of poor sanitation and malnutrition, which frequently co-occur in water-insecure communities. In this context, irrigation can be a powerful tool to improve both health and agricultural outcomes.

A panel discussion moderated by Jesse Bell, Ph.D., DWFI director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Water, Climate and Health Program, followed Ringler’s talk. During the panel, Abbie Raikes, Ph.D., director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Center for Global Health and Development, noted that food insecurity is not just a global issue. “Here in Nebraska, nearly 50% of families report some level of food insecurity,” she said. Drawing on her experience working in Rwanda, where stunting affects 35–40% of children, Raikes emphasized the importance of learning from innovations abroad and breaking down silos between agriculture and public health. “I’ve worked in public health for a long time,” she said, “and rarely do I see the agricultural community represented. It’s encouraging to see this audience engaged and ready to take on the challenge.”

Brandon Hunnicutt, a fifth-generation Nebraska farmer and chairman of the Nebraska Corn Board, echoed the importance of collaboration and innovation, sharing how farmers in the state are working closely with the University of Nebraska to improve water use efficiency and sustainability.

Ringler concluded with a challenge to all attendees:

“Take one thing from this talk and apply it to your work. Anyone working in irrigation has the power to help move the needle on nutrition.”

Heuermann Lectures are sponsored by the University of Nebraska’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and funded by a gift from the late B. Keith and Norma Heuermann of Phillips. The Heuermanns have been longtime university supporters, with a strong commitment to the state’s production agriculture, natural resources, rural areas and people.

Uganda workshop advances understanding of Irrigation as a Service

In January 2025, DWFI hosted a five-day workshop in Uganda to enhance understanding of entrepreneurial approaches Irrigation as a Service (IaaS) for smallholder farmers. The event brought together eight commercial irrigation service providers from Africa, Asia, and Europe. The participants represented a wide variety of business models and approaches to supporting smallholder irrigation. Through field visits to IaaS customers and collaborative discussions, participants exchanged expertise and identified key challenges and opportunities for scaling IaaS. 

Several key findings emerged from the workshop. The discussion led to an improved understanding of how IaaS transfers risk from farmers to service providers, potentially requiring supplementary risk-management tools such as credit guarantees and rainfall insurance. Participants also emphasized that reliable irrigation for smallholders growing vegetables is the most important value proposition for some customer segments. The group also discussed potential ways to work with value chain and other partners, including opportunities around collected operational data. Alongside these insights, the workshop facilitated peer-to-peer learning, network building, and discussions on business models, financial mechanisms, and technological advancements. These outcomes will directly inform future DWFI research as well as broader initiatives.

Irrigation as a Service project team begins field visits

In late 2024, DWFI was awarded a three-year grant from the Gates Foundation. The nearly $3.5-million grant supports a new research project focused on expanding the reach and impact of Irrigation as a Service (IaaS) for small scale farmers.

Irrigation as a Service (IaaS) offers potential solutions by providing agricultural water access without requiring farmers to purchase equipment. The new project investigates critical factors affecting IaaS scalability and sustainability with the goal of informing strategic investments in targeted regions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Team members on the Gates Foundation project visited Ghana in March 2025 to engage in field visits and meetings. Partners included the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); International Water Management Institute (IWMI); and other DWFI researchers and contracted consultants.

Activities over the six days included a three-day workshop to understand and integrate project activities, including suitability mapping (led by IWMI) analysis of development outcomes (led by IFPRI); and financial and business analysis (led by DWFI) of IaaS enterprises. Field visits to northern Ghana allowed interaction with these enterprises and their smallholder farmer customers, including a women farmers’ cooperative.

Improving Irrigation Management in the Dominican Republic using Geospatial Techniques

A project in the Dominican Republic, involving DWFI, is nearing completion. This project utilized high-resolution satellite imagery to map smallholder irrigated properties and update an existing database from the early 2000s used by Water User Associations to manage water and assess fees. Fieldwork, including boundary confirmation and farmer interviews, has also been conducted to gather further data on water users and irrigation infrastructure.

Accurate property boundaries are critical for effective water governance and policy implementation. By ensuring the correct assignment of water rights and usage, the project supports fair water distribution and helps water management agencies monitor usage and enforce regulations. This work enables the efficient and fair use of water resources in agriculture. Additionally, Water User Associations rely on fees from producers, which are proportional to their irrigated area, making accurate irrigated area measurement essential for the operation and maintenance.

Interdisciplinary project aims to improve Nebraska farming

A research team at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, which includes DWFI Faculty Fellows Yufeng Ge and Saleh Taghvaeian, is developing "CropTwin," a digital twin system using precision and predictive farming techniques. Supported by the USDA, the project aims to create a dynamic virtual replica of a Nebraska farm to simulate crop growth and test irrigation methods. By collecting real-time data from sensors and using deep learning models, CropTwin will provide accurate simulations for smart irrigation management, ultimately saving water and resources.

The researchers plan to deploy CropTwin at the Spidercam field phenotyping site and test its effectiveness on soybean crops. The first year will focus on developing the technology and its integration with existing crop models, while the second year will involve field testing. The team envisions CropTwin expanding to other agricultural solutions like insect control and livestock management, impacting both the technology and agricultural fields, and ultimately affecting everyday people.

103 Nebraska faculty receive promotion, tenure honors

We congratulate all DWFI Faculty Fellows who received promotion in tenure honors this semester!

Fritz elected to National Academy of Sciences

By Nebraska Today