Food and Agriculture
As the state’s land-grant university, the UA has a long tradition of equipping students, Arizonans, and others around the world with agricultural and natural resource management tools and information to successfully adapt to current and future challenges in our changing world. Through extension and other community outreach programs, UA experts and specialists are driving on-the-ground efforts to enhance agriculture, other bio-based industries, and the environment. Their effort reaches roughly 500,000 people every year. In addition, the University is home to world-class researchers who are providing society with fundamental knowledge and know-how in a comprehensive range of environmental issues, including water and irrigation management, land and natural resources; animal and plant sciences; aquaculture and aquatic ecology; soil and crop management; marketing, trade, and economics; food safety; and food security.
Climate change will have profound and far-reaching impacts on food and agriculture around the world, particularly in drier regions like the Southwest United States. University of Arizona research on this link between adaptation and food and agriculture is multi-faceted, interdisciplinary, and of regional and international importance. Ongoing projects span everything from regionally significant issues like the effect of reduced water availability on agricultural practices in the Southwest to the role of international trade as an adaptation mechanism.
Research
