PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (February 25, 2022) – Smart agriculture is an innovative concept that uses technology to increase quality and production in farming environments. Armed with a new $749,719 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture-Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), Ali Fares, Ph.D., endowed professor of water security and water-energy-food nexus at Prairie View A&M University, will do just that to help underserved populations and farming communities.
Ali Fares, Ph.D.
“This project, GetAgSmart: Building Capacity In Smart Agricultural Technologies For Underserved Communities, will support the research program of the team,” shared Fares. “I am personally excited that it will also provide the academic program with funding to introduce smart agriculture modules to courses, hire undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research, and give them opportunities for hands-on experience in these topics.” Fares’ research interests include climate-smart agriculture, watershed hydrology and management, and natural resources management.
Fares is leading a team of ten, six from PVAMU and four from Texas A&M University, for GetAgSmart. Many on the team are internationally known experts in their respective areas, including TAMU AgriLife Research Assistant Professor Janie Moore. Dr. Moore works in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department at TAMU.
Co-principal investigators for the project from PVAMU comprise Peter Ampim, Ripendra Awal and Ram Ray from the College of Agriculture and Human Sciences, Rukeia Draw-Hood from the Cooperative Extension Program, and Ahmed Ahmed from the Roy G. Perry College of Engineering Computer Science Department.
Front Row (left to right): Ram L. Ray, Ph.D., P. E., associate professor; Ali Fares, Ph.D., endowed professor of water security and water-energy-food nexus; and Rukeia Draw-Hood, Ph.D., program leader, 4-H Youth Development. Back Row: Peter Ampim, Ph.D., assistant professor; Ahmed Ahmed, Ph.D., assistant professor, Computer Science; and Ripendra Awal, Ph.D., associate professor.
“This collaboration between Dr. Fares’ team at Prairie View A&M and TAMU AgriLife is a strategic partnership between our universities,” said Magesh Rajan, Ph.D., P.E., MBA, Vice President, PVAMU Research & Innovation. “Their study will incorporate innovation, technology, education and agriculture to serve those in food deserts, impacting food insecurity and farming challenges of underserved communities. With the challenges of global warming and supply-chain challenges creating shortages and delays in food deliveries, their research will be pivotal in helping to discover a better way, a smarter way, to harness innovation to improve access to fresh food and produce and training students through cutting-edge technology that will give them skills to be well-qualified candidates in a growing career field.”
The team will introduce modules in at least eight courses at PVAMU to respond to urgent needs in the smart agriculture curricula. As a result, students will be trained in skills that are in high demand now and in the future. Some student participants will also use aspects of the project to conduct their own research as part of their graduate degree requirements.
AFRI is America’s flagship competitive grants program, providing funding for fundamental and applied research, education, and extension projects in the food and agricultural sciences. Securing their funding on a first attempt is worthy of recognition for Fares. For him and his team, it is a significant enhancement to the current program to “work on state-of-the-art topics and have the ability to train and empower our graduate and undergraduate students, with needed skills for jobs of the future.”
This article by Karen B. Cotton originally appeared in Research and Innovation’s January edition of “On the Rise.”
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