Engagement recovers to pre-pandemic levels

DWFI has taken advantage of its many digital ways to engage over the past several years. However, in-person connection is important in advancing the institute’s mission. In FY23, DWFI directors and staff led discussions in several high-level meetings and events, as well as participated in numerous industry conferences.

Nebraska Agtech Connect in Lincoln, Nebraska | July 20, 2022

DWFI Program Coordinator Ankit Chandra was invited to speak on the Ag Sustainability panel at the first annual Nebraska AgTech Connect event, hosted by Invest Nebraska and The Combine. The event brought together AgTech investors, startup founders, and corporate agriculture, and programming focused on Midwest agriculture. Chandra spoke to the event’s 150+ attendees about current market trends in agricultural sustainability and the carbon market, corporate ESG goals, what foundational steps can be taken to pave the way for meaningful change in sustainability in the Midwest, and what new business models related to sustainability may be seen in the future in the agtech space. Other panelists included Mark Young, COO of LandTrust, and Mitchell Hora, Co-founder/CEO of Continuum Ag and the panel was moderated by Ben Williamson of Invest Nebraska. DWFI was a sponsor of the 2023 event.

National Congress on Irrigation and Drainage in Brazil | August 2022

DWFI Director of Research Christopher Neale gave a lecture at Brazil’s 2022 International Irrigation Fair. The XXXI CONIRD (National Congress on Irrigation and Drainage), organized by the Brazilian Association of Irrigation and Drainage (ABID), brings together hundreds of irrigation equipment brands, professionals, and experts in sustainability and irrigation technology over three days, with hosted lectures and mini-courses and an irrigation equipment fair. Attendees come from several Brazilian states, and also Argentina, Uruguay, other South American countries, Spain, Italy, Israel and the United States.

Neale gave a lecture on the mission and vision of DWFI, and the institute's work to achieve food and water security by enhancing irrigation productivity, freshwater and agricultural ecosystems, drought management, education, groundwater management, and closing productivity gaps.

World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden | August 23-September 1, 2022

DWFI co-hosted a closed meeting at World Water Week (WWW) in Stockholm, Sweden with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and Netafim to bring together a diverse group of potential collaborators to discuss agricultural water management at the intersection of climate resiliency and global food security. Since this time, conversations have continued on how to bring the conversation of water and food to the forefront of conversations on the global stage.

The group has been meeting regularly and hosted an open meeting at the 2023 Water for Food Global Conference. DWFI, FFAR and Netafim also submitted a proposal for an on-site and online session titled “Multi-stakeholder Collaboration in Agricultural Water Stewardship: Solutions to Advance SDGs” which was accepted for inclusion in the next WWW to be held in August 2023.

A launch event was also held at WWW by the World Wildlife Fund for its newly released Sustainable Groundwater Management for Agriculture report, which featured a Nebraska case study written by DWFI Water Markets Program Manager Renata Rimšaitė.

DWFI Board Member Felicia Marcus was included on a panel hosted by the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate / Pacific Institute in tandem with WWW. These additional opportunities were especially valuable since WWW has not been held in person since 2019 due to the pandemic.

FEMA Region 7 Climate, Emergencies and Health Symposium in Olathe, Kansas | September 15-16, 2022

Jesse Bell, DWFI director of water, climate and health, presented at the 2022 FEMA Region 7 Climate, Emergencies and Health Symposium hosted by EPA, FEMA, and OASH.

AgTech NEXT conference in St. Louis, Missouri | October 2022

Nick Brozović, DWFI director of policy, was an invited panelist at the AgTech NEXT conference at the Danforth Center in St. Louis, where he spoke during a session on trade and agriculture. Brozović was joined by Kenneth Zuckerberg of CoBank, Shannon Hauff of Bayer Crop Science, and Lisa Safarian of Pivot Bio. Brozović's work represents our mission to understand and support entrepreneurship and innovation in agricultural technology and related areas.

World Food Prize Borlaug International Dialogue in Des Moines, Iowa | October 18-20, 2022

The 2022 World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue convenes global leaders in food security to elevate innovations and inspire action to sustainably increase the quality, quantity and availability of food for all. DWFI attended the event in Des Moines, Iowa in October 2022, hosting an exhibitor booth to engage with attendees and distribute information about the institute. Many connections were made with many key players doing important work in the sphere of food security and DWFI shared its work in water as a key piece of the conversation.

Also during the event, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and The Rockefeller Foundation gathered experts and stakeholders from climate, agriculture, food security, and humanitarian backgrounds to discuss a bold vision for a 21st Century of zero hunger in a healthier and more equitable world.

The white paper, “Defining the Path to Zero Hunger in an Equitable World,” reflects a summary of their views and offers a framework to reimagine a hunger-free world. DWFI Executive Director Peter McCornick participated in this conversation and provided his endorsement of the paper, which tackles some of the greatest obstacles facing the nexus of food security, climate, and humanitarian spaces, and ultimately voices hope for a better food future. It amplifies this message by providing an analysis of three major obstacles—silos, myopic priorities, and top-down decision-making—in conjunction with catalyzing ideas that address these challenges.

2nd International FAO WASAG Forum in Praia, Cabo Verde, West Africa | February 7-10, 2023

Following its launch during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s COP 21 in November 2016, the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) received recognition and a mandate to support countries in finding solutions to cope with climate change in agriculture in the face of climate change. In April 2017, a meeting of Partners agreed to establish a WASAG partnership to be hosted by FAO to advance the mandate of the Framework.

DWFI is a WASAG Partner and the institute's executive director, Peter McCornick, is a member of the WASAG steering committee. McCornick attended the 2nd International WASAG Forum in Praia, Cabo Verde last month, along with additional DWFI staff members.

The objective of the Forum was to:

• Mobilize political commitment to accelerate strategic actions, including policies and investments for addressing water scarcity in agriculture;
• Formulate messages that will raise the profile of water scarcity in agriculture in the climate change dialogues at the forthcoming at the UN Water Conference in March 2023 and UNFCCC COP 28 in November 2023;
• Discuss ways of making the partnership more effective and impactful for the implementation of the new WASAG Strategy 2021-2024 and involving all Partners;
• Share relevant knowledge and information on key issues and to network and to foster collaboration among partners; and
• Showcase latest technologies, practices and products in agriculture.

Winthrop Rockefeller Distinguished Lecture Series in Morrilton, Arkansas | March 17, 2023

The Winthrop Rockefeller Institute hosted DWFI Executive Director Peter McCornick as an invited lecturer in its Winthrop Rockefeller Distinguished Lectures atop Petit Jean Mountain in Morrilton, Arkansas.

His lecture, titled “Securing Water & Food in a Changing World,” was part of an event focused on the state’s water and food resources, which also included a panel of leaders from the state. Along with colleagues from the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, McCornick also visited Stuttgart, Arkansas, the “rice and duck capital of the world”, to meet with rice producers, researchers, water managers, wildfowl specialists and business owners to discuss the opportunities and challenges the state faces in water and agriculture.

United Nations 2023 Water Conference in New York City, New York | March 22-24, 2023

DWFI collaborated with partners on two side events outside the UN Headquarters as part of the United Nations 2023 Water Conference in New York.

The first event, titled "Filling the Water Storage Gap: Advancing a resilient and sustainable agenda to ensure a water and food secure future in the face of climate change" was hosted with the World Wildlife Fund-United States, the International Water Management Institute, Stanford University, the World Bank, the University of Nebraska and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The session focused on scaling an integrated agenda for water storage and management, including nature-based solutions, to achieve shared goals of water and food security for people and planet.

The second event, titled "Sustainable Agricultural Water Use Offers Solutions: Multi-stakeholder Collaboration to Advance Shared SDGs" was hosted in collaboration with Solutions from the Land, ADMC, Cargill, ComNet Mekong, Ducks Unlimited, DU Canada, FFAR, General Mills, Global Water Partnership, CIMMYT, Irrigation Association, Netafim, Nutrien, the Nature Conservancy, the Water Policy Group, and WBCSD. It showcased ag water solutions to water quality/quantity, food security, biodiversity, climate, resilience and disaster risk reduction, and issuing a call for collaboration to achieve these goals.

Nebraska Women in STEM Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska | March 23, 2022

DWFI Communications Team members Amber Poythress and Arianna Elnes attended and hosted a booth at the Nebraska Women in STEM Conference. Nebraska Women in STEM is organized through a partnership between Bio Nebraska and Nebraska Cures, and provides women the opportunity to develop their personal and professional identity while building networks of support to help them achieve their goals. This year’s keynote speaker was engineer and science communicator Emily Calandrelli. She shared with the audience her journey in science, the necessity of diversity for innovation and advancement, and the importance of advocacy.

DWFI strengthens global reach with collaboration with OneCGIAR

DWFI is strengthening its global reach in the "water for food" domain by forming collaborations with several of the new initiatives under OneCGIAR, a consortium of 15 research-for-development institutes aiming to address interconnected food, land and climate crises throughout the developing world.

In one such collaboration within the Nexus Gains initiative, DWFI is partnering with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) on a study that aims to identify ways to enhance both water productivity and food production in three irrigation schemes in the Karnali River Basin in western Nepal. Though all three schemes are located in the plains directly below the Himalayas and have similar agricultural systems, the schemes differ in their management institutions and in the reliability and variability of their water sources.

Hosted by IWMI, Randall Ritzema, Ph.D., DWFI research scientist, recently visited the Nepal sites, familiarizing with the irrigation systems and meeting with government officials and farmer-led water user associations. The visit clarified the focus of the study and solidified DWFI’s partnership with IWMI in Nepal. Further water management studies that extend into the "middle hills" and high-elevation areas in the Karnali basin are now in the planning stages.

Plant to Table Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska | April 2023

DWFI Executive Director Peter McCornick moderated a session titled "Food and Environmental Impacts: Action Opportunities on Local to Global Scales" at the Center for Great Plains Studies Plant to Table Conference. The session featured DWFI Faculty Fellows Georgina Bingham, Kelly Helm Smith, Elizabeth VanWormer and Harkamal Walia describing how they work in Nebraska, the Great Plains, and internationally to support the mission of the Institute.