CDFA ANNOUNCES AWARDS FOR WATER EFFICIENCY TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

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SACRAMENTO, July 28, 2023 – The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation is pleased to announce $7.4 million in grants to organizations to provide technical assistance to help farmers and ranchers use water more efficiently. The funding was appropriated to the California Emergency Relief Fund by the Budget Act of 2021 to maintain and precisely calibrate agriculture irrigation systems.

Under the Water Efficiency Technical Assistance (WETA) program, the awarded organizations will provide producers with important services to maintain and finely tune the use of their irrigation systems, including:
1. Providing on-farm irrigation system evaluations
2. Coordinating or providing pump efficiency testing
3. Providing training on water use efficiency and nutrient management practices and technology

The department is awarding 17 grants with terms of three years. This is the second round of the WETA program. The first awards were announced in 2022.

“Funding from the WETA program has enabled our team to leverage other funding sources and strengthen partnerships to improve our services and coverage,” said Sacha Lozano, the Agricultural Stewardship Program Manager with the Santa Cruz Resource Conservation District. “Participating growers benefit from timely and qualified technical assistance to improve their irrigation and nutrient management practices, and the program plays a key role helping us to achieve water conservation goals for our groundwater basin.”

The WETA grant program is designed to facilitate technical assistance to agricultural operations for on-farm water and energy use efficiency and nutrient management.

Producers interested in receiving training or services provided through WETA can review the list of awarded organizations with contact information at the WETA website: www.cdfa.ca.gov/oefi/technical/weta.html

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