By Justin Walker
Communications Specialist
Applications for the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) fiscal year 2019 agricultural water conservation grants will be accepted through Jan. 16, 2019.
TWDB has up to $600,000 in grant funding available to promote agricultural water conservation.
“We have had good success in previous years in getting engagement and involvement from the agricultural community,” Kathleen Jackson, TWDB board member, said. “We feel like this is a wonderful investment by the state to promote agricultural water conservation.”
Farmers and ranchers are encouraged to contact their groundwater conservation district, river authority or irrigation district to apply for the grants, Jackson said.
Funding is available for the purchase of agricultural water conservation equipment, materials and supplies designed to monitor irrigation water use, implement irrigation scheduling and/or improve upon irrigation efficiency.
Up to 50 percent reimbursement is availble for eligible expenses, which include but are not limited to, soil moisture and crop stress monitoring devices, remote management of irrigation systems, telemetry, automated gates, supervisory control and data acquisition, weather stations, metering equipment and materials and supplies for infrastructure improvements in irrigation conveyance systems.
Grants are designed to help improve efficiency for farmers, ranchers or existing water conservation systems.
“What we have seen in the past is that the individual farmer can be up to 98 percent efficient in the way that they utilize that very precious resource—water,” Jackson said.
Interested applicants should contact Cameron Turner at cameron.turner@twdb.texas.gov or 512-936-6090.
TWDB evaluates all proposals based on the specific criteria for each category. Eligible activities, maximum grant amount per project and local match requirements may differ between categories.
Grant recipients must submit annual reports with irrigation water use data and an estimate of actual water savings realized through the project for five years following installation or construction completion.
More information is available at www.twdb.texas.gov/.