Washington State University researchers have received extra funding in the hopes of turning less water into more wine.

WSU recently received $1.7 million in grant money from Washington State’s department of agriculture for various specialty crop researches. WSU received a total of 10 of 24 grants. The 24 grants equaled in total $4.1 million.

One of the largest awards, $249,971, was awarded to Pete Jacoby, a professor and plant ecologist at WSU’s department of crop and soil sciences.

“We’re very grateful for this opportunity, and what we use this money for is to expand the amount of research we’re doing,” Jacoby said. “I don’t think we would’ve won this grant had we not had the commitment from the industry as this was a very expensive process.”

Local farmers like Rick Hamman, a viticulture manager of Hogue Ranches in Prosser, Washington, have offered strong support in getting more funding for researchers like Jacoby.

“It’s been very critical to our work and with the drought this year. Peter’s work has really helped us save water and reduce costs,” he said

Jacoby’s research involves water conservation efforts, particularly water conservation with grape vineyards. He has worked to reduce the amount of water used in irrigating grape vineyards up to 85 percent. A lot of water is wasted with traditional methods as a large portion of the water is either lost to evaporation or does not reach the roots as it travels through the topsoil.

Jacoby’s efforts, in combination with engineers, aim to put a drip system that gets water deep into the soil near each plant where it can be directly sent to the plant’s roots, much like an IV transfusion. This direct method also prevents weeds from taking advantage of excess water, meaning farmers don’t have to use extra pesticides.

Reducing water usage not only has the obvious benefits of lower costs for farmers and less water waste, but it also could produce a boom in the grape industry.

Washington State currently has 75,000 acres dedicated to vineyards, and roughly one-third of that product goes into Concord products, such as juice and preservatives, said Jacoby. Grape farmers could expand that acreage, but current water amounts prevent them from expansion. Less water use also has the potential of creating grapes that end up smaller in size but in larger amounts and containing higher sugar content.

Grapes aren’t the only crop getting special treatment; pears will also be getting a boost from this increased funding.

Amit Dhingra, an associate professor of plant genomics and biotechnology, is also looking to apply his award to producing better crops. He received $204,466.

Dhingra studies new ways to increase the quality and nutritional value of sliced pears. He feels this grant will not only be a great stimulant to his research but to the pear market as well.

“Our research doesn’t do much good if it’s not put into practice, and this grant allows us to implement our research in a way that it helps the consumer,” he said.