2026 Educational Aids Blue Ribbon Award: Advancing Precision Agriculture in Southern California
Dr. Amir Verdi received the 2026 Educational Aids Blue Ribbon Award from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers for his entry, Advancing Precision Agriculture in Southern California. The award recognizes excellence in educational and extension materials that improve understanding of agricultural and biological engineering topics beyond the traditional classroom.
Verdi’s award-winning entry features a suite of web-based decision support tools developed to make advanced precision agriculture technologies more accessible to growers, irrigation advisors, Cooperative Extension personnel, students, and researchers. These tools translate artificial intelligence, remote sensing, GIS, and soil–water modeling into practical platforms that support irrigation scheduling, management zone delineation, reference evapotranspiration estimation, and soil hydraulic property prediction. The tools were developed with a focus on Southern California agriculture, where water scarcity and field variability make precision irrigation increasingly important.
CDFA FREP Project: Improving Cantaloupe Irrigation and Nitrogen Management
Amir Verdi is leading a new research project, funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Fertilizer Research and Education Program (FREP), to improve irrigation and nitrogen management in cantaloupe production across Southern California. Co-PIs include Elia Scudiero (Director, UC Riverside Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (CAFE)) and Jairo Diaz (Director, UC ANR Desert Research and Extension Center).
The project combines field trials in Riverside and Holtville with drone-based remote sensing to evaluate how different irrigation levels and nitrogen rates affect crop yield. Multispectral and thermal imagery will be used to monitor crop conditions and develop models for early yield prediction and field-scale yield mapping.
The goal is to support precision agriculture by helping growers apply water and fertilizer more efficiently—improving productivity while reducing environmental impacts. Findings from this work will contribute to California Crop Fertilization Guidelines and support more sustainable farming practices in water-limited regions.
USDA NIFA Project: Advancing Safe Use of Recycled Water in Agriculture
Amir Verdi is leading a newly funded USDA NIFA project focused on improving the safe use of recycled water for crop irrigation. Haizhou Liu (UC Riverside) serves as co-PI on the project.
As recycled water becomes an increasingly important resource in agriculture, concerns remain about contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) entering the food chain. This project addresses those challenges by integrating water treatment and irrigation management strategies.
The research team will develop a mobile, on-farm water treatment system based on persulfate photolysis, alongside irrigation approaches that adjust water sources based on crop growth stages. Greenhouse and field studies will evaluate how these combined strategies can reduce contaminant accumulation in edible plant parts while maintaining crop productivity.
This work advances precision agriculture and sustainable water management by providing practical solutions that support water reuse while protecting food safety.