PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (October 20, 2025) – Prairie View A&M University continues to strengthen its leadership in agricultural innovation and climate research through a new NASA-funded project that aims to help farmers better prepare for the impacts of climate variability.
Ripendra Awal, Ph.D., professor in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (CAFNR), has secured more than $200,000 in grant funding from NASA to support a three-year collaborative project titled “FARMGO: Enhancing Climate-Resilient Agriculture and ENSO Preparedness through NASA Data Integration and AI Geovisualization.” This is a $1.2M project.
Awal Ripendra, Ph.D.
Ali Fares, Ph.D., regents professor in the TAMUS and an endowed professor of water security and water-energy-food Nexus in CAFNR, will serve as co-principal investigator. Together, they will represent PVAMU as part of a multi-states research team led by Sam Houston State University and include researchers from Arizona State University.
The FARMGO project leverages NASA’s Earth observation data and artificial intelligence to enhance agricultural resilience to climate variability, including El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events that can lead to extreme weather shifts. The PVAMU team will focus on data processing, database development, analysis, and publication of results, while also leading outreach efforts to farmers and minority students to share findings and best practices.
Graduate students will play a key role in supporting research and community engagement, furthering PVAMU’s commitment to student training, agricultural innovation, and climate-smart farming.
This initiative underscores Prairie View A&M University’s growing role in advancing climate-resilient agriculture and sustainability research through strategic partnerships with leading institutions and federal agencies like NASA.
By Joe McGinty