Wong et al. (2025) Measuring impacts of California agri-environmental programs using field-scale satellite data

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Environmental Research Letters
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-15
• Authors: Corisa A Wong, Wyatt S Abramson Sklarin, Meagan S Mauter, David B Lobell
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ae2ca6

Research Groups

The study evaluates programs from the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The specific research group conducting the evaluation is not explicitly stated in the abstract.

Short Summary

This study evaluates the ex-post agri-environmental outcomes of California's grant programs for water-saving and soil health practices in almonds, grapes, and walnuts using satellite data and causal inference. It reveals varied and sometimes counterintuitive effects, with some interventions increasing water use and others showing modest greenness improvements, highlighting potential discrepancies with program goals.

Objective

• To evaluate the ex-post agri-environmental outcomes (changes in field-level consumptive water use and greenness, a proxy for agricultural productivity) of California Department of Food and Agriculture grant programs for water-saving and soil health practices.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Field-level, analyzing nearly 600 fields in California.
• Temporal Scale: 2014–2022 period.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Two causal inference methods.
• Data sources: Satellite data (for consumptive water use and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)).

Main Results

• Fields receiving grants for both irrigation system upgrades and irrigation water management sensors showed an average reduction of 3.5% in consumptive water use and 4.2% in greenness (NDVI).
• The adoption of only irrigation water management sensors resulted in an average increase of 4.1% in consumptive water use and 4.8% in greenness (NDVI).
• Grants for both pump efficiency upgrades and sensors had negligible effects on consumptive water use or greenness.
• Grants for compost addition led to small greenness (NDVI) increases of 1.7% and had insignificant effects on consumptive water use.
• Grants for cover cropping led to small greenness (NDVI) increases of 2.8% and had insignificant effects on consumptive water use.
• Several practice outcomes may be at odds with stated program goals of reducing water use while maintaining or improving agricultural productivity.

Contributions

• Provides a novel ex-post evaluation of agri-environmental grant programs using satellite data and causal inference methods at the field level.
• Quantifies the impacts of specific agricultural interventions (irrigation upgrades, sensors, compost addition, cover cropping) on water use and agricultural productivity.
• Identifies potential discrepancies between the outcomes of grant-funded practices and stated program objectives, offering critical insights for policy refinement.

Funding

• The study evaluates programs from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which invested over $200 million in direct grants to growers. Specific funding for this research is not detailed in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Wong2025Measuring,
  author = {Wong, Corisa A and Sklarin, Wyatt S Abramson and Mauter, Meagan S and Lobell, David B},
  title = {Measuring impacts of California agri-environmental programs using field-scale satellite data},
  journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/ae2ca6},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae2ca6}
}