RII Horticulturist Rob Eddy, University of Florida Professor Dr. Paul Fisher and University of Connecticut Associate Professor Rosa Raudales, Ph.D., will be featured
PORTLAND, Ore. (Sept. 5, 2023) — Resource Innovation Institute (RII), a not-for-profit, public-private partnership advancing climate resilience, announced today that RII Resource Efficiency Horticulturist Rob Eddy will join University of Florida Professor and Extension Specialist/Floriculture Dr. Paul Fisher and University of Connecticut Associate Professor in Horticulture and Greenhouse Extension Specialist Rosa Raudales, Ph.D. on an upcoming U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) webinar to discuss how to design and operate water circularity systems in greenhouses and indoor farms.
Scheduled for Sept. 14 at 2 p.m. EST, the webinar is sponsored by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Those interested in attending must register online the day of the webinar. Co-authors of the recently published Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Water Circularity Best Practices Guide, Eddy, Fisher and Raudales will provide an overview of some of the report’s top findings and tips during the session.
“This guide is a first-of-its-kind report in North America and aims to help farm operators, utilities, ancillary product and service providers, and policymakers identify opportunities to advance agricultural water efficiency,” Eddy said. “The best way for these practices to have a meaningful impact is for all of us to work together on implementing them. We look forward to sharing what we learned in the development of the guide and are grateful for the chance to speak to this audience. ”
Topics covered during the webinar will include:
- The economic rationale of water circularity
- Ways to reduce irrigation system waste in evaporative cooling pads and reverse osmosis systems
- The microbial, chemical and physical risk factors associated with irrigation water
- An update on proven technologies for water disinfection and purification
The CEA Water Circularity Best Practices Guide was published in June by Resource Innovation Institute as part of a USDA NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant-funded project. Through actionable tips and tools on the operational benefits of adopting water-saving practices, the guide offers practical solutions to reduce, remediate and recycle a CEA facility’s water usage. It can be downloaded from RII’s resource catalog at this link. To attend the Sept. 14 webinar, register online here.
About Resource Innovation Institute: We Empower Farm Resilience
Resource Innovation Institute (RII) is a not-for-profit, public-private partnership advancing climate resilience. RII provides resource efficiency education, training and verification services, in collaboration with CEA producers, researchers, governments, utilities, and the design & construction sector. Visit our website at ResourceInnovation.org. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
