Daugherty Water for Food Podcast
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34 episodes
The Fifth National Climate Assessment is federally mandated by Congress and released every four years to serve as the foremost review of research on the current and future impacts of climate change in the United States. In this episode of the Water for Food Podcast, DWFI Director of Communications and Public Relations Frances Hayes discusses key findings of the report with three of its co-authors. DWFI Faculty Fellows Andrea Basche and Tonya Haigh co-authored the Northern Great Plains chapter, which includes Nebraska. DWFI Director of Water, Climate and Health Jesse Bell, who leads the Water, Climate and Health Program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, co-authored the chapter on human health. The authors share their take on regional differences related to climate change, who is most affected by its impacts and what bright spots exist. View the full assessment here. Find webinars on each topic hosted by the U.S. Global Change Research Program here.
Aakanksha Melkani, a postdoctoral research associate at the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, https://waterforfood.nebraska.edu/ researches the economic implications of drought in the United States, specifically on agricultural sectors. In this edition of the Water for Food Podcast, we are sharing an episode of Nebraska on Tap, a podcast produced by the Middle Republican Natural Resources District in Nebraska. Host of the show, Heather Dizmang, discusses Aakansha’s findings so far, as well as her time in Africa studying maize production.
THE MELTING CRYOSPHERE AND FOOD & WATER SECURITY, WITH RANDALL RITZEMA, TIKA GURUNG, AND NICK BROZOVIĆ A 2023 report called (HI-WISE), published by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), was an urgent call for how disappearing snow and ice in the Hindu Kush Himalayas will impact water resources for nearly two billion people. But the cryosphere exists elsewhere, too, as part of the globe’s hydrological system. Populations and ecosystems of The Andes, California and Nebraska, for example, all rely on a healthy cryosphere for water. With a changing climate, what are the implications to food and water security? How do we adapt? In this episode, DWFI Communications Specialist Arianna Elnes discusses the changing cryosphere with DWFI Research Program Scientist Randall Ritzema, who contributed to Chapter Three of the HI-WISE report; University of Nebraska-Lincoln Graduate Student of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Tika Gurung, who studies glaciers in the Himalayas; and DWFI Director of Policy Nick Brozović. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute is co-hosting a webinar on the Water-Food Nexus in Mountain Systems on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024 at 3-4 P.M. UTC (9-10 A.M. CT). The link to register, and the recording after, is available at go.unl.edu/waterfoodnexus. For more on Water for Food’s work visit waterforfood.nebraska.edu
Yufeng Ge, Santosh Pitla and David Jones have already conducted research in the areas of ag-relevant sensors for more efficient application of fertilizer and water, and the development of an autonomous planter capable of seeding a 5-acre field all on its own. But now they’ve set their sights quite a bit higher — growing food in space. The three biological systems engineering faculty at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, along with others on their research team, were awarded a two-year Grand Challenge grant from Nebraska’s Office of Research and Economic Development to find ways to sustainably grow food in space. In this episode, Frances Hayes, DWFI director of communications and public relations, sits down with Yufeng, Santosh and David as they explore their short-term goal of developing a center dedicated to studying space agriculture and their long-term goals of actually growing enough food on space to sustain people while translating the lessons learned to agriculture here on Earth.
Since 2013, UNL Water Sciences Lab Director Dan Snow and other researchers in the University of Nebraska system (NU) have collaborated with faculty and students in Central Asian institutes to improve water quality research across the globe. The purpose of this effort is to share NU’s knowledge and expertise in water quality research with a region that has limited resources and important water quality issues to address. In this episode, guest host Ann Briggs, public relations and engagement coordinator at the Nebraska Water Center, chats with Dan during one of his visits to Kazakhstan, along with Marjan Kalmakhanova, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technology at M.Kh. Dulaty Taraz Regional University in Kazakhstan. Both discuss the importance and impact of global partnerships in water quality research. To learn more about this partnership, visit centralasiawater.unl.edu.
DWFI was recently selected to lead USAID's Feed the Future Lab for Irrigation and Mechanization Systems (ILIMS). In this episode of the Water for Food Podcast, Nicole Lefore, the director of the new lab and the associate director of sustainable agriculture water management at DWFI, shares the purpose of USAID's overall Feed the Future initiative; how ILIMS will support smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries and how the lab can ultimately reduce global hunger, poverty and undernutrition and help increase food and water security.
Ron Yoder is a pillar of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln community and most recently served as the senior associate vice chancellor for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln ‘s (UNL’s) Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR). In this episode, DWFI Director of Communication and Public Relations Frances Hayes talks with Ron about the important role he played in formation of DWFI more than 10 years ago. They also look back on Ron’s storied career on the eve of his retirement. Ron joined UNL in 2004 as the department head for the Department of Biological Systems Engineering before becoming the associate vice chancellor for IANR in 2011. He also served as interim NU vice president and IANR vice chancellor in 2016, after then-IANR vice chancellor Ronnie Green was named the UNL chancellor.
This is the second in our series of podcasts from the 2023 Water for Food Global Conference, May 8-11. In this episode, we hear from Dr. Mure Agbonlahor, who works at the African Union Commission as senior Policy Officer, and Louise Mabulo, chef, farmer, entrepreneur, and founder of The Cacao Project.
Soumya Balasubramanya, Senior Economist at The World Bank, was a speaker at the recent 2023 Global Water for Food Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska. This is the first in a series of podcasts from the conference.
Daugherty Water for Food Institute (DWFI) Research Program Manager Ankit Chandra and Director of Policy Nick Brozović recently published research on “Entrepreneurial trends in the Indian agricultural water ecosystem” and the larger business landscape of agricultural water use and investments. In this edition of the Water for Food podcast, we are sharing an episode of Agribusiness Matters, hosted by Venky Ramachandranin, in which Ankit and Nick are interviewed about their latest research. Agribusiness Matters is an endeavor to discover systems thinking in agriculture and presents a regular, holistic analysis of agtech in India.
In this episode of the Water for Food Podcast, Nebraska Water Center Public Relations and Engagement Coordinator Ann Briggs sits down with her colleague and Water Sciences Laboratory Director Dr. Dan Snow who shares his path to water quality research in Nebraska and beyond. They address known and emerging contaminants throughout the state, building international partnerships, and the importance of water quality research.
Dave Aiken is a DWFI faculty fellow and a professor of agricultural economics at UNL’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. His research areas include water law and policy, energy law, environmental law and global warming. In this episode, DWFI Communications Specialist Arianna Elnes talks to Dave about water law, water legal histories, the South Platte River Compact, and context around the legislation to build the Perkins County Canal in Nebraska. As background, the South Platte River Compact was drawn in 1922 between Nebraska and Colorado. Nebraska has limited rights to the river, which flows north through Denver, across Eastern Colorado, and into Nebraska. The compact allocated 500 cubic feet per second of the South Platte River to Nebraska through a “future” Perkins County Canal. However, the canal was never finished. Now, nearly one hundred years later, Nebraska’s governor has requested legislation to build it.
In this episode of the Water for Food Podcast, DWFI Communications Specialist Arianna Elnes discusses exciting projects coming out of the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute and what lies ahead in the upcoming year with Executive Director, Dr. Peter McCornick. McCornick leads the institute in delivering on its vision of a water and food secure world, building its partnerships and collaborations in Nebraska, nationally in the US, and other key food producing regions in the world. He is a tenured professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the Robert B. Daugherty Chair of Water for Food. McCornick was recently re-elected to the Board of Governors of the World Water Council; and is a member of the steering committee of the Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) initiative, a global partnership organized by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN (FAO). Prior to joining DWFI, Peter was the deputy director general of research at the International Water Management Institute. With an international career focused on improving the sustainable management of water resources, he has led inter-disciplinary research and development programs on water, agriculture and the environment in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Canada and the U.S. View DWFI’s 2021-2022 Annual Report: https://go.unl.edu/annualreport Watch Peter McCornick’s end-of-the-year video: https://go.unl.edu/2022year
20 – CHRISTOPHER NEALE – REMOTE SENSING, WATER AND AGRICULTURE In this episode of the Water for Food Podcast, Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute (DWFI) Director of Communications Frances Hayes sits down with her colleague and DWFI’s Director of Research Dr. Christopher Neale. Dr. Neale shares how his technical research translates to a more sustainable agricultural system through more precise use of water and savings for farmers. Dr. Neale joined DWFI in 2013 and oversees its research efforts, engaging faculty in new projects and initiating partnerships all over the world with various organizations, universities and industry partners. Throughout his decades-long career, his research has focused primarily on developing remote sensing applications for irrigated agriculture, hydrology and natural resources monitoring. He has developed a low-cost airborne remote sensing system used in the western U.S. to map the energy balance and evapotranspiration of agricultural crops and natural vegetation. Dr. Neale is a founding partner and executive committee member of the Irrigation Innovation Consortium. He has led numerous national and international partnerships and projects to improve irrigation management in the U.S., Middle East and North Africa, India, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Kazakhstan.
Renee San Souci – Member of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and Iowa In this episode of the Water for Food Podcast, DWFI Director of Communications Frances Hayes caught up with Renee San Souci at the 2022 Platte River Basin Conference in Kearney, Nebraska. Renee was a featured speaker at the conference, providing a tribal perspective on creating vibrant, resilient solutions for the future of the people and wildlife who depend on the Platte River. The Platte Rivers runs through Nebraska and is a braided 310-mile-long tributary of the Missouri River. Renee is a member of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, an educator, and a poet. She is dedicated to Native youth suicide prevention, language revitalization, community healing and restoring spiritual connections to the Sky and the Earth through native teachings. Renee shares her journey to becoming an educator and her perspective on water as a native woman.
Renata Rimšaitė is a senior program manager with DWFI and the National Drought Mitigation Center https://drought.unl.edu/. Renata studies incentive-based water management, including tools designed to motivate or incentivize water using or managing parties to modify the way they use water, not only because it is sustainable, but also because it's in their financial interest. Water markets is an example of incentive-based water management and can be used to provide flexibility and lower drought risk to crop growers. In this episode, DWFI Communications Specialist Arianna Elnes interviews Renata to help us learn more about interesting aspects of groundwater management policy. She explains how sustainability can be an economic win-win and how incentive-based water management tools are used in Nebraska and elsewhere.
DWFI Faculty Fellow Karina Schoengold is leading a $6 million, 4-year project to reduce the use of plastics, herbicides and associated environmental impacts in agricultural production. The use of plastics has been growing in agriculture over recent years to help increase productivity by limiting weeds, protecting growth and extending growing seasons. The team aims to create a bio-based material called BioWRAP (Bioplastics with Regenerative Agricultural Properties) which can be sprayed onto the fields. The material will then break down and add to the nutrients of the soil as a bio-based fertilizer. Once the technology is created, the team will measure the effectiveness under different conditions, as well as soil impacts such as runoff, sedimentation, erosion, water filtration and any water quality impacts that would occur from using it. In this episode, Arianna Elnes, DWFI communications specialist, interviews Karina about the goals of the project, the economic and social impacts of the technology and its future potential for agriculture and the environment.
Erin Haacker is a hydrogeologist and assistant professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. As Erin would say, her professional path has been a winding road. She has two bachelor’s degrees – zoology from the University of Montana and geology from University College Cork in Ireland. She ventured to Michigan State University for her Ph.D., double majoring in environmental science and policy and is now teaching in UNL’s Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences. Erin is interested in groundwater management, especially in terms of profit and risk. She likes to ask thought-provoking questions such as how people adapt to natural resources and how that can be represented in physical and statistical models. In this episode, Frances Hayes, DWFI director of communications and public relations, and Erin discuss the interconnections of groundwater and surface water in Nebraska, as well as the role agriculture plays in the equation.
Roric Paulman is a producer and owner of Paulman Farms, located just south of Sutherland, Nebraska and in the heart of the Ogallala Aquifer, comprised of both irrigated and rain fed farmland. The farm was established and harvested its first crop in 1985 and uses the latest on-farm technology to grow more than a dozen crops. It is one of two “smart farms” in Nebraska that DWFI and the Nebraska Water Center helped the University of Nebraska–Lincoln establish to test the real-world ability of innovations to increase yields and improve sustainability outside of a controlled environment. It is equipped with high-speed wireless internet for data access, cutting-edge sensors and precision application equipment that helps to improve water, nitrogen and other input efficiencies, as well as soil health, carbon sequestration and technology development. Roric is an avid user of new technologies and practices he believes will help make his operation more sustainable while still increasing profits. He is also a member of the DWFI international advisory board and Board Chair of the Nebraska Water Balance Alliance, an organization that catalyzes best practices among Nebraska farmers by emphasizing practical, locally focused watershed management practices. Roric is active on state, regional, and national boards for many of the crops he grows and is focused on helping to promote farmer understanding of best practices in water use efficiency. In this episode of our special series focused on water and agriculture in Nebraska, Frances Hayes, DWFI director of communications and public relations, chats with Roric about why technology’s intersection with agriculture is so top of mind and how he sees growers working together to protect groundwater and surface water.
Jackson Stansell is CEO and founder of Sentinel Fertigation, a Lincoln, Nebraska ag startup founded in 2021 that uses drone- and satellite-collected imagery to predict when a corn crop needs fertilization — saving growers money and reducing environmental impact. Jackson has a connection to the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute. He received student support from the institute while working on his masters in agricultural engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Jackson is now also pursuing his Ph.D. in biological engineering. In this episode of our special series focused on water and agriculture in Nebraska, Frances Hayes, DWFI director of communications and public relations, sits down with Jackson to discuss how he came up with the idea for his company, tips for creating technology growers will actually use and his vision of how agtech entrepreneurs can create a win-win for both farmers and the environment.
Of Rwanda’s roughly 600,000 hectares of irrigable land, only 10% is currently irrigated. With a more developed irrigation industry, farmers would be able to take advantage of three growing seasons, rather than one, enabling better food security and income. However, there are gaps in knowledge needed to advance the industry. Seeking to make these advancements accessible, staff at the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute have completed a study which maps and analyzes the business ecosystem for smallholder irrigation in Rwanda. The Rwanda smallholder irrigation ecosystem map shines a light on farmer-led irrigation - the distribution and use of small irrigation pumps and associated equipment by individual farmers or shared between a few farmers - and analyzes the business ecosystem for providing those goods and services. In this episode, Arianna Elnes, DWFI communications specialist, interviews Natacha Akaliza, DWFI program consultant; Savant Nzayiramya, DWFI policy intern; and Nick Brozović, DWFI director of policy; about the team’s research and key findings. View the full report and findings » https://go.unl.edu/ecosystem
Managed aquifer recharge can be an innovative way to both satisfy endangered species’ habitat restoration and benefit crop irrigators in the area. This is exactly how it was used in Nebraska’s Central Platte Valley when river canals were already in need of repair after more than 100 years of use. The process consists of recharging an aquifer using either surface or underground recharge techniques, making the stored water available for use in dry years when surface water supplies may be low. In the Central Platte Valley, this was done through a low cost, low energy method of timing the flow of water and managing its gravitational seep into the ground. It now contributes to the streamflow targets of each endangered bird species, with an estimated value of $43.7 million. In this episode, DWFI Communications Specialist Arianna Elnes interviews Crystal Powers, research and extension communications specialist with DWFI and the Nebraska Water Center. They dive more into this collaboration between the Central Platte Natural Resource District (CPNRD), the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (NeDNR), and the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (PRRIP), as well as private irrigation districts and canal companies. A new book published by UNESCO includes this project as a case study in effective managed aquifer recharge and it was co-authored by Powers.
Matt Foley is program director for The Combine AgriFood Incubator, a part of Invest Nebraska, which supports early stage agtech companies in row crop, animal health, digital agriculture and sustainability. The incubator supports founders of these companies through go-to market support, producer connections and seed funding. Matt also assists in portfolio management for the venture fund. In this episode, guest host Ankit Chandra, DWFI program coordinator, sits down with Matt to discuss which ag innovations he’s most excited about, where gaps and challenges exist in the agtech ecosystem and more.
Amy Wu is an award-winning journalist, filmmaker and the creator of From Farms to Incubators, a multimedia platform that uses documentary, video, photography and the written word to tell the stories of women leaders and innovators in agtech. It has a mission of highlighting women in food, farming, and farmtech, especially women of color. From Farms to Incubators includes a documentary that has been screened at South by Southwest, and a new book that was published earlier this year that profiles nearly 30 women founders in agtech. Amy is also a featured speaker at the 2021 Water for Food Global Forum, where—along with two women agtech entrepreneurs—she’ll be discussing a new generation of startups led by women, with a diversity of backgrounds and ethnicities, who are providing novel perspectives and solutions to agriculture’s problems with tech innovation.
Babak Safa joined the Water for Food Global Institute in July 2016. He specializes in agricultural meteorology, micro-meteorology and vegetation-atmosphere interaction. Safa analyzes eddy covariance flux data from installed systems to support remote sensing based model verification and water productivity estimates for several agricultural and natural ecosystems and projects around the world. He works with partnering researchers at LI-COR Biogeosciences, USDA-ARS and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Safa also supports satellite based water productivity estimates in Nebraska and other countries using satellite based remote sensing models. Additionally, he helps train graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in satellite image processing methods, flux data processing and micrometeorological methods.
Qiao Hu, a Ph.D. student studying natural resource sciences at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, discusses his research using drones (UAVs) and artificial intelligence (AI) for wetlands management Qiao’s faculty advisor and DWFI Faculty Fellow Zhenghong Tang is a professor in the Community and Regional Planning Program and Landscape Architecture Program at UNL, as well as a courtesy professor in the School of Natural Resources. In this podcast, both discuss the importance of wetlands to our ecosystem and how we can improve our management of them
Nebraska state climatologist Martha Shulski joins the podcast to discuss the impact of climate change on society and the environment. Shulski is also a DWFI Faculty Fellow, associate professor of Applied Climate Science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, director of the Nebraska State Climate Office and a proud “weather nerd.” She was one of the contributing authors on the Fourth National Climate Assessment released in 2018.
Crystal Powers, research and extension communication specialist with the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute (DWFI) and Nebraska Water Center interviews University of Nebraska-Lincoln communications professor Jessica Walsh about her 2019 project Nitrates in Nebraska: A Multimedia Journalism Project on the Impact of Nitrate Contamination in the Groundwater. Walsh is a former newspaper reporter and a new DWFI Faculty Fellow.
* DWFI executive director Peter McCornick co-hosts with Gus Hurwitz, the Menard director of the Nebraska governance and technology center at the University of Nebraska. Law is a key focus of the conversation. Water regulations, and the subsidies and penalties that follow them, are not easy to change when a major weather event impacts water storage and use. As more and more weather events occur due to climate change, some advocates are suggesting that laws need to be more flexible and adaptable to promote equity. Guests: __ __
