PolyCentric University News Center

A $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will feed a three-year project to help California farmers prepare for climate change. In true polytechnic fashion, the research team will draw from multiple disciplines — aerospace engineering, computer science, geography and plant science — to develop 24 models measuring agricultural suitability. The best model will be shared with farmers as a tool to enhance forecasting methods for current and future climate conditions. “We planned this research to work with us and bring what we study back into the classrooms,” said Geography Professor Gabriel Granco, lead investigator. “These problems will not be addressed by only one discipline; it’s the combination of all these different fields working together to address the bigger problem — climate change and, in this case, applied to agricultural suitability.”