Researchers at Texas Tech’s Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources have secured renewed funding to pursue long-term studies aimed at sustaining agriculture and rural communities as the Ogallala Aquifer - the nation’s largest underground freshwater reserve - continues to decline.
The work is part of the Ogallala Aquifer Program, a U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service-led, multi-university collaboration. The program targets practical strategies for conserving groundwater across Western Kansas and the Texas High Plains, where withdrawals from the aquifer far outpace natural recharge.
“The focus of the Davis College research is to conduct long-term studies for irrigated cotton production in thermo-limited regions of the northern Texas Panhandle and Southwest Kansas,” said Noureddine Abidi, Interim Associate Vice President for Research & Innovation and Associate Dean for Research at Davis College.
Two Texas Tech projects will receive continued support under the 2026 cycle of the Ogallala Aquifer Program:
- Donna Mitchell McCallister, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics, is part of a team analyzing the economic implications of alternative water conservation strategies across the Southern Ogallala Aquifer region. She is evaluating the economic outcomes of a forced transition out of irrigation into dryland and rangeland for the Texas High Plains region. This analysis will analyze the impacts of reduced water availability to place an economic value on irrigation to the regional economy.
- Alex Rocatelli, associate professor in the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources and director of campus farm operations, is contributing to a project evaluating sorghum traits for resilient forage production in the Southern High Plains. A rare sorghum mutant (mtl-D1) shows early, productive tillers and extended vegetative growth, offering potential for water-saving forage in the Southern High Plains (SHP). The project will compare mtl-D1, BMR, and prussic-acid-free sorghum against commercial forage sorghum and corn across three SHP locations under dryland and 50 percent ET irrigation, evaluating forage yield, nutrition, water use efficiency, economics, and outreach, with a focus on practical benefits for producers.
The Ogallala Aquifer underpins much of the Great Plains economy, stretching 174,000 square miles beneath eight states from South Dakota to Texas. But decades of intensive irrigation have drained the aquifer faster than rainfall can replenish it, threatening both farm productivity and rural livelihoods.
Alongside Texas Tech, the program brings together scientists and economists from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Kansas State University, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, and West Texas A&M University.
CONTACT: Noureddine Abidi, Associate Dean for Research, Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2808 or noureddine.abidi@ttu.edu
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