California Ag Irrigators Annouce Scholarships

California Agricultural Irrigation Association Names Scholarship Winners

In an effort to develop the next generation of leaders, the California Agricultural Irrigation Association (CAIA) member companies provide scholarships to students with a desire to pursue a career in the agricultural irrigation industry. The sponsors and winners this year were:

Irrigation Design and Construction LLC and RDO Water scholarships went to Brayan Garcia, a senior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo majoring in Agricultural Systems Management and minoring in Water Science.
Buckner Superior awarded the Gary Pendleton Scholarship to Alexa Sutter, a junior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo majoring in BioResource & Ag Engineering.
Agri-Valley Irrigation selected Jose Amezcua, a junior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, as the recipient of their scholarship. Jose is majoring in BioResource & Ag Engineering.
Fresno Valves & Castings and Agri-Valley Irrigation awarded scholarships to Joshua Porter, a junior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo majoring in BioResource & Ag Engineering.
Western Ag & Turf chose Liliana Reyes Solorio, a senior at Fresno State University, as the recipient of their scholarship. Liliana is a senior majoring in Agricultural Education with an emphasis in Plant Science.

In 2017, CAIA began offering member companies the opportunity to sponsor scholarships to applicants within the California university and college systems—the average award being $1200 per academic year.

In addition to the financial support, scholarship recipients automatically receive student memberships in CAIA for the duration of their scholarship period. Other companies are encouraged to join these sponsoring companies in supporting our leaders of tomorrow by contacting Jane Townsend (jane@agamsi.com).

California Ag Today2020-09-07T09:20:24-07:00September 7th, 2020|

Irrigation Industry Needs Help

Promoting Efficient Irrigation

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

What will affect the irrigation industry in the future? California Ag Today asks Brent Mecham, the industry development director with the Irrigation Association located in Fairfax, Virginia. Promoting effective irrigation is important.

“I work on the things that are going to affect our industry or the future and trying to position ourselves so we can continue to promote efficient irrigation,” Mecham said.

His occupation includes working on codes and standards, new technologies, technical programs, and educational programs. This is becoming popular among policymakers.

Everyone in the world is benefiting from irrigation. Everybody in the world is benefiting from water whether they know it or not.

“It’s something that affects everybody’s life, and they will not notice it until there’s no lettuce for your salad or no tomatoes. So irrigation affects people all around the world,” Mecham said.

There is more demand on water resources in property. Irrigation is very important for a state like California.

“There is more demand on water resources than ever before, and a lot of places where it is very sensitive, like in California, and the water shortages are becoming prevalent,” Mecham explained.

Farmers have been doing their part to be more profitable in their operations. Cities, too, need to do their part to prevent water running down gutters, which is not efficient.

California Ag Today2018-10-09T16:44:05-07:00October 9th, 2018|