Researchers from Clemson University, the University of Florida, and USDA’s Agricultural Research Service received a $10 million grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to study the development of a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) platform for growing salt-tolerant crops, such as mustard greens, cucumbers, and tomatoes, using saline water for irrigation. The overall goal is to develop a hydroponics CEA platform for cultivating salt-tolerant food crops using saline irrigation water while ensuring no environmental impacts associated with salinity are created. Knowledge gained from this study will help growers use marginal-quality water for year-round production. The study will be conducted in vegetable-growing areas of South Carolina and Florida and will be extended to Arizona.
Source: attra.ncat.org