Home | Global FEWture Alliance

Our interdisciplinary, international team develops holistic solutions that focus on all areas of the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus, enhancing climate resilience and protecting global public health.

24

Projects in Israel, Nepal, Tanzania, and USA

124

International Students Involved in 2 Years

1,924

Global Community Members Reached

Defining the FEW Nexus

What do we mean by food-energy-water systems?

No food can be grown without water and energy
Wastewater treatment requires energy and electricity generation requires vast amounts of water
Energy should be sourced sustainably in ways that don't increase climate change

The FEW nexus approaches sustainable food production by integrating these three essential resources. We can engineer more efficient ways to irrigate crops, such as drip irrigation and rainwater capture. We can integrate renewable energy systems, such as solar arrays, biogas, and small-scale hydropower, so that food is produced with less climate impact. And we can produce a variety of nutritious food that supports public health while nurturing local ecosystems through biodiversity and permaculture forest cover.

Read more about how the FEW nexus supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals:

UN Facts on the FEW nexus

Agrivoltaics and Public Perception

These sheep seem happy grazing in the shade of solar panels. But what do farmers, solar developers, regulators, and community leaders think of this emerging technology?

Global FEWture Alliance member Dr. Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman has recently published a team paper resulting from a stakeholder workshop in Arizona on perceptions and hurdles to adopting agrivoltaics. The paper holds encouraging results for small, farmer-owned PV systems that enhance nutritious food access and education for host communities.

Dr. Pavao-Zuckerman and his team have also advised Montgomery County, Maryland about social perceptions of agrivoltaic adoption as farmers look to more sustainable, affordable, and systems-based solutions to enhance productivity and profits.

Energy Research & Social Science

Biochar Innovation

At Sanskriti Farms and Research Centre in Nepal, the team is investigating wood-derived biochar as a soil supplement and carbon sink.

Biochar is a carbon-rich material produced by heating organic waste in a low-oxygen environment. It offers many agricultural benefits: enhanced soil fertility, improved water retention, and higher nutrient availability. Biochar also serves as a climate change mitigation tool by sequestering carbon in the soil, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

These benefits make biochar a powerful solution for promoting sustainable agriculture and building climate resilience.

Sanskriti Biochar

Intern Profile: Boluwatife Adetutu

We're highlighting work from our summer internships! Here is the testimony of Boluwatife Adetutu, a student from Nigeria:

"It was an amazing opportunity to be part of the 2025 cohort of the GFA Summer Internship Program. We began with a series of webinars on professional development, writing a CV and statement of purpose, and oral presentations. I was able to gain knowledge from a new perspective.

Being a mentee under Dr. Lansing was such a great experience. With her guidance, I worked on the UMD Extension Animal Waste Technologies website to make it more user-friendly. I created fact sheets on animal waste technologies like biochar. I am a huge fan and passionate about simplifying complex topics so that more people can easily understand them.

I also assisted in translating biochar graphical fact sheets featuring visual illustrations on how to make and apply biochar to soil—into multiple languages like Spanish and Haitian Creole, making them accessible. My writing skills improved as I contributed to writing a Journal of Extension article on the collaboration between UMD and Maryland’s Department of Agriculture to improve animal waste technologies in the state.

This experience not only equipped me with rich academic knowledge and character development but also strengthened my motivation to continue working to solve environmental challenges through outreach, research, and environmental education."

Summer Intern Profiles

Meet our International Summer Interns

We have supported two groups of interns for 2025:

Our summer interns from Nepal are eight motivated students from Kathmandu University. These students are working on essential technologies for safe irrigation, precision farming, and soil amendments to make crops more productive.

Our summer interns from several USA-based universities are ten innovative undergraduates working on topics including waste-to-energy systems, managing sewer overflows, weather prediction using machine learning, safe irrigation of leafy greens, and drinking water microbial and chemical analysis.

Our USA-based interns presented their summer projects on Wednesday, August 6th.

See the full video presentation here.

Summer Interns

East Africa FEW Conference

Mbeya University of Science and Technology hosted the East Africa FEW Conference in July - more details here!

This regional conference took a leap forward in educating farmers, public health officials, and business people who work in food, energy, and water in East Africa. These experts shared the latest research-to-action insights and developed relationships that will build community cohesion and resilience to a changing climate.

FEW Conference