Browse
Engage
Research
The drought is not just affecting businesses and individuals within the state, however. With the state's agriculture industry providing both a huge national economic boon as well as a significant chunk of the country's food supply, the drought that is hitting the state's farms will affect the rest of the country as well.
With this in mind, a new white paper from the California Agricultural Water Stewardship comes at an ideal time to shape how water gets used on farms in the state.
The paper, "Water Stewardship: Ensuring a Secure Future for California Agriculture," brings together agriculture, water and activist groups to explore the ways that agriculture can be both profitable and sustainable, especially through efficient water management.
"It appears increasingly obvious that there can be no economically, agronomically, and ecologically sustainable agriculture system without a sustainable water stewardship strategy" the paper's authors write.
Intended to foster discussion and lay out the groundwork for developing a sustainable water stewardship plan, the white paper outlines a handful of well established farming practices that can help maximize water efficiency on farms of all sizes. Among the techniques listed are increasing the ways water is captured on farmlands through constructed ponds, wetlands and other methods; making use of water sources other than surface- and groundwater, in particular by treating agricultural runoff water and reusing water on-farm; re-imagining ways of managing soil and irrigration practices to maximize water efficiency; and adopting technological solutions to pinpoint where water is needed.
Profiled in the white paper are case studies of farms and water-stressed regions that are making the most of scarce water supplies. From an Australian watershed-management program to California vineyards and dairy farms that have made significant water and cost savings from adopting these techniques. Napa Valley's Frog's Leap Vineyard saves roughly 16,000 gallons of water per year through its "dry farming operation," and the Straus Family Creamery in Marshall, Calif., recycles much of the 5,000 gallons of water it uses per day to clean their barns, and harnesses the methane from the wastewater to generate electricity on-farm.
The member organizations in the Stewardship that have published the white paper -- including the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association, the California Institute for Rural Studies, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, the Ecological Farming Association, the Polaris Institute and the Water Institute of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center -- acknowledge that significant improvements in water efficiency and stewardship must come from industrial and municipal contributions as well. Those three groups have long been at loggerheads in population-rich and water-poor California, but the Ag Water Stewards recognize that change can begin on the farm and, through collaboration, can "benefit and protect farming while also sustaining the health of the ecosystems upon which we all depend."
The white paper is available to download from AgWaterStewards.org.
Farm photo CC-licensed by Flickr user Andrew Stawarz.
Water conservation needs to begin on the farm
Let's see, in California, growing alfalfa uses 4 million to 5.5 million acre feet of water a year. The entire city of Los Angeles uses only about 650,000 acre feet. Agriculture uses four times more water than urban areas. The California gross domestic product for agriculture is $15 billion; for urban-based manufacturing, it's $172 billion.
So, when we talk about water conservation, let's talk about California's biggest water user -- agriculture. If we try to solve the drought entirely on the backs of urban water users, we risk losing urban manufacturing and service jobs, which are the backbone of our economy, and hundreds of billions of dollars in California urban gross domestic product.
http://blog.jimgogek.com
Re: oxymoron
I think you're talking about multiple different issues.
first off - "whatever grows naturally on their land." -- that's not farming. that's just landscape. Farming is inherently altering the landscape. And in order to grow the food that we need to live, you've got to manage the land and that involves watering and irrigation.
now, the other issue is smart farming; growing watermelons in the desert ? smart farming. that's what this report is all about, I think. We're obviously not going to be able to stop agriculture, so how do we grow food in responsible and sustainable ways?
Water management - an oxymoron
The most efficient water practice would be to ban irrigation.
Farmers could just grow whatever grows naturally on their land.
If farmers simply stopped trying to grow products requiring irrigation, we'd all be better off.
It makes no sense to me to grow watermelons in the desert, if you know what I mean.
To me, "water management" is an oxymoron. Water isn't meant to be "managed". There are farmers in the Arizona desert tapping 150 year old aquifers. The water won't be replaced for another 150 years. Meanwhile, the watered land becomes saline. The only "management" needed in Arizona is "no irrigation". It's just that plain simple.