USDA Selects UHM Engineering Professor for ACI Grant

University of Hawai’i at Mānoa Civil Engineering Professor Sayed Bateni received a major award from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Innovation Grants today.

Dr. Bateni will be the principal investigator of Real-time Optimization of Irrigation Scheduling for Farmlands in Hawai’i, Guam, and American Samoa. The $980,000 grant over three years proposes to demonstrate optimal irrigation management strategies. 

A robust approach will be developed to optimize irrigation scheduling in intensive vegetable production systems across diverse climatic zones in the Pacific Islands. The University of Hawai’i team will expand on proven technology developed in California and modify it for climates, soil types, and crops in the Pacific Islands.

The objectives are to:

1. Develop a weather-based irrigation scheduling system to improve water use efficiency for selected vegetable crops
2. Design an online tool to enable real-time irrigation scheduling on a field-by-field basis
3. Implement an outreach program targeting farmers and other agriculture professionals to enhance their awareness to adopt an irrigation management strategy that conserves water resources and enhances farm productivity

Dr. Bateni’s partners include College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and the Water Resources Research Center from the Mānoa campus as well as collaborators from the University of Guam and the American Samoa Community College.