(College Station)—The Efficient Irrigation for Water Conservation in the Rio Grande Basin project received a national award for its integrated activities for water resources. Also known as the Rio Grande Basin Initiative (RGBI), the project won the U.S. Department of Agriculture–Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (USDA–CSREES) National Water Program 2007 Award as the Outstanding Integrated Activities for Water Resources. RGBI was one of the 37 projects nominated to the agency.
RGBI is a joint project between Texas A&M Agriculture and New Mexico State University College of Agriculture and Home Economics.
“There were many good projects nominated, but RGBI stood out among them with its accomplishments and accountability,” said Michael O’Neill, national program leader for water resources at USDA–CSREES.
The award was presented to Allan Jones and Bill Harris of Texas Water Resources Institute and Craig Runyan of New Mexico State University at the USDA–CSREES National Water Conference held in Savannah, Georgia, in January. The selected recipients accepted this award on behalf of all RGBI participants and collaborators. RGBI is a winner because of the hard work, dedication and collaboration of all participants involved in the project working with each other and other universities, agencies and individuals to make this project a success, O’Neill said.
“The high level of cooperation between New Mexico and Texas is outstanding,” O’Neill said. “Coordination across institutions and states is challenging, but RGBI does a great job at working through it. They have also really worked hard to connect research and Extension throughout each task area of the project.” 