Category Archives: News

The Tools I Want, Where I Want

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That’s just what you’ll get on the Dashboard we’re building for NEWA. “The Tools I Want, Where I Want” on the Home page’s center will invite you to login and create a profile for your NEWA Dashboard. Here’s a quick video about our project with an introduction to the Dashboard. What’s new with NEWA? https://youtu.be/sL2p4AgWe98

We’ve been busy — building a responsive NEWA website with improved weather data quality from the 729 weather stations that share data in 25 states for our crop and IPM tools. Our new platform will shrink down beautifully on your phone and expand out on your desktop to give you easy-to-access, accurate tools for IPM decision-making.

Place-based extension resources and logos will provide partner credit and give you the experience of being in your own university’s setting. Each weather station location will acknowledge those who provide data to NEWA, yes, all 729 of them, and as many more as decide to plug in to NEWA.

Screenshot picture of the NEWA Dashboard, sized for a phone.

The Favorite station info on my NEWA Dashboard, sized for a phone.

A Stakeholder Innovation Workshop identified areas of need and set the stage for prioritizing NEWA’s content. One-on-one user experience (UX) research informed NEWA’s design. Our project advisory panel — producers, faculty, Extension specialists, state partners, and weather station owners — contributed advice on UX, architecture, design, functionality, and ADA compliance to heighten your experience when interacting with the responsive NEWA decision support system.

NEWA’s improved data handling will boost speed and enhance capacity to build more tools. The National Digital Forecast gridded data are being integrated as a backup data source for weather stations that fail to report data. Inclusion of these data greatly improves the reliability and loading speed of the NEWA tools.

When you have a Dashboard, your trap catch dates, and and other stuff used by NEWA’s tools, will be saved for the weather station location. You won’t have to enter this over and over and over again.

Prefer open access? NEWA Home now serves weather data from the weather station closest to your location, automatically, with an interactive map of NEWA weather stations. Two landing pages, Weather Tools and Crop & IPM Tools, buoy simplified navigation.

NEWA’s models have been modernized via a common model template fostering tool development. Drive the tools with left or button menus: station selection, date of interest, toggle on/off tool elements. Tool elements are grouped in user input, management guide, results table, results graph, and environmental variables table. You can download tool data (CSV) and graphs ( PNG).

Beta testers unanimously praise design and navigation. We are now building out NEWA’s tools and anticipate finishing around May of 2021. NEWA version 3.0 will be launched in 2021 at newa.cornell.edu.

NEWA: Your source for weather and science-driven IPM tools.

Our Impact Statement: Increased use of digital IPM decision support systems like NEWA results in more growers making better pest management decisions with less pesticide input. NEWA’s renewed architecture now delivers geo-specific attribution for appropriate place-based extension outreach on devices as small as phones. Common building blocks used to reconstruct the 35 IPM models into responsive NEWA tools were delineated and pave the way for future growth and easy upgrades. A NEWA dashboard will display what the user wants from the locations they want: easy to set up through NEWA’s user profile. The profile backend will store essential biofix and crop information to drive fast and accurate IPM forecasts for growers. We have developed the required back-end databases and front-end design elements that will heighten positive user experiences when interacting with the responsive NEWA decision support system. To support NEWA data quality, we utilize forecast data and our weather station data editor tool to provision an accurate and reliable decision support system. Improved navigation comes via an interactive NEWA map and streamlined landing page designs that echo our user-experience research. When growers have access to reliable, weather-based, real time NEWA models, IPM practices increase on the farm, preventing plant disease, insect, and crop loss, reducing unnecessary inputs, and minimizing health, economic and environmental risks.

This post was contributed by Juliet Carroll, Fruit IPM Coordinator and past NEWA leader. Contact her at jec3@cornell.edu

USDA Announces Coronavirus Food Assistance Program

(Washington, D.C., April 17, 2020) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). This new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program will take several actions to assist farmers, ranchers, and consumers in response to the COVID-19 national emergency. President Trump directed USDA to craft this $19 billion immediate relief program to provide critical support to our farmers and ranchers, maintain the integrity of our food supply chain, and ensure every American continues to receive and have access to the food they need.

“The American food supply chain had to adapt, and it remains safe, secure, and strong, and we all know that starts with America’s farmers and ranchers. This program will not only provide immediate relief for our farmers and ranchers, but it will also allow for the purchase and distribution of our agricultural abundance to help our fellow Americans in need.”

  1. CFAP will use the funding and authorities provided in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), and other USDA existing authorities. The program includes two major elements to achieve these goals.
  2. CFAP will use the funding and authorities provided in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), and other USDA existing authorities. The program includes two major elements to achieve these goals.

On top of these targeted programs USDA will utilize other available funding sources to purchase and distribute food to those in need.

  • USDA has up to an additional $873.3 million available in Section 32 funding to purchase a variety of agricultural products for distribution to food banks. The use of these funds will be determined by industry requests, USDA agricultural market analysis, and food bank needs.
  • The FFCRA and CARES Act provided an at least $850 million for food bank administrative costs and USDA food purchases, of which a minimum of $600 million will be designated for food purchases. The use of these funds will be determined by food bank need and product availability.

Further details regarding eligibility, rates, and other implementation will be released at a later date.

Additional Background:

USDA has taken action during the COVID-19 national emergency to make sure children and families are fed during a time of school closures and job losses, as well as increase flexibilities and extensions in USDA’s farm programs to ensure the U.S. food supply chain remains safe and secure.

Feeding Kids and Families

  • USDA expanded flexibilities and waivers in all 50 states and territories to ensure kids and families who need food can get it during this national emergency.
  • USDA is partnering with the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, McLane Global, PepsiCo, and others to deliver more than 1,000,000 meals a week to students in a limited number of rural schools closed due to COVID-19.
  • USDA authorized Pandemic EBT in Michigan and Rhode Island, a supplemental food purchasing benefit to current SNAP participants and as a new EBT benefit to other eligible households to offset the cost of meals that would have otherwise been consumed at school.
  • USDA expanded an innovative SNAP online grocery purchase pilot program in Arizona and California, Florida and Idaho, and DC and North Carolina, in addition to Alabama, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Oregon and Washington.

Actions to Ensure a Strong Food Supply Chain

Whole of Government Response in Rural America

  • USDA released The COVID-19 Federal Rural Resource Guide (PDF, 349 KB), a first-of-its-kind resource for rural leaders looking for federal funding and partnership opportunities to help address this pandemic.
  • USDA opened a second application window (April 14, 2020 to July 13, 2020) for $72 million of funding under the Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) grant program.
  • USDA Rural Development lenders may offer 180-day loan payment deferrals without prior agency approval for Business and Industry Loan Guarantees, Rural Energy for America Program Loan Guarantees, Community Facilities Loan Guarantees, and Water and Waste Disposal Loan Guarantees.
  • USDA will use the $100 million provided for the ReConnect Program in the CARES Act to invest in qualified 100 percent grant projects.

For all the information on USDA’s work during the COVID-19 pandemic and resources available, please visit www.usda.gov/coronavirus.

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