Austin-based Tito's Handmade Vodka, through the company's Love philanthropic branch, has become the leading supporter of Texas Tech's Davis College Water Center through a donation of $1.2 million, according to a university news release.

The College of Agricultural Science and Natural Resources (Davis College) Water Center offers a space to give "information and opportunities for cooperation focusing on water-resource activities." With research, outreach, and education, the center helps to address local and global water issues in relation to agriculture and the environment.

“Davis College is very appreciative of this leading gift from Tito's Handmade Vodka for the Water Center,” said Clint Krehbiel, dean of the Davis College. “To sustain one of the most productive farm belts in the world, the Davis College Water Center aims to develop water-conserving and climate-resilient crop-forage-livestock systems for the Southern High Plains and scaling those systems for global impact. Tito’s leading support provides us with resources needed to find innovative solutions critical to the future of sustainable supplies and quality of water.”

Krishna Jagadish, Thornton Distinguished Chair of Plant & Soil Science at Texas Tech, serves as the director of the Davis College Water Center, leading research and coordinating the Texas Coalition for Sustainable Integrated Systems Research and the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation. His research focuses on optimizing crop systems used for livestock feed and grazing by creating new tools to "enhance water conservation and improve soil health." This donation will help his, and the college's, goals to better water conservation.

“Support from Tito’s Handmade Vodka will catalyze and provide the momentum needed to develop transdisciplinary solutions to challenges related to agriculture water conservation, which will have an impact at the regional and global levels,” Jagadish said.

Tito's donates funds to various research projects around the world.

"Tito’s Handmade Vodka donates funds to a variety of promising research projects working on solving some of the world’s most urgent problems," said Sarah Everett, Ph.D., Director of Global Impact and Research at Tito’s Handmade Vodka. "Innovative and sustainable solutions for water issues are critically important on a local and global scale. We are thankful for – and are happy to further support – the research and work the team at Texas Tech University is leading."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech, Davis College Water Center gets $1.2M from Tito's Vodka