By Christopher Outcalt
Water is at the heart of agriculture. Every stage of the food-growing process depends on having reliable access to water. However, water levels are declining in many rivers and aquifers that function as key resources for agricultural producers, particularly in the Western U.S. Those declines threaten food supplies as well as critical ecosystems. A new review paper led by researchers at Colorado State University examines six strategies for addressing the challenge of water scarcity.
“There is no simple solution,” said Thomas Borch, professor in CSU’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences with a joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry and the paper’s principal investigator and a senior author. “But the systems-based approach we discuss in our paper offers a strong foundation for building a more sustainable and effective water management strategy.”
Such strategies are critical in part because agriculture typically uses about 80% of available water supplies in the U.S.
Published this week in the journal Nature Water, the paper, titled “Advancing sustainable water use across the agricultural life cycle in the USA,” explores the potential effectiveness, drawbacks and adoption challenges for six approaches to conserving water nationwide
Source : colostate.edu