By NOAH RANKIN
The United States Department of Agriculture will award Cornell $600,000 for research on the effects of climate change on agriculture, the USDA announced Tuesday.
This grant is part of $6 million awarded to 10 universities from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture in an effort to adapt the nation’s agriculture and forests to climate change, according to a USDA press release. The other universities include University of Colorado, Florida International University, Iowa State University and West Virginia University.
Cornell’s grant in particular will go toward evaluating rice production in the face of climate change. This project will develop “models integrating historical rice yield data at the county and farm level, weather variables and genotypic parameters,” according to the press release.