Farming wisely

It’s getting very difficult to meet water needs in more than half of the river basins in the world—potentially affecting some 2.7 billion people.

What is the reason for water depletion in our river basins? Growing urban populations? No. It is agriculture that is the culprit. The same candidate who has been in the spotlight for growing contribution to climate change!

Yes, cities use a lot of water, but 80-90% of that water is returned to the original water source after use. If it’s returned in good quality, it doesn’t deplete the water source and the water is available for others to use and to sustain aquatic life.

A new study in the journal PLoS ONE and coauthored by Nature Conservancy found that 92% of this water depletion globally is tied to agriculture. Unlike cities, most water used to irrigate farms is not returned to the ecosystem. On average, more than half of that water is lost to the atmosphere—it either passes through the plant during growth or evaporates from the soil. So cities use more water than crops on a per-area basis, but it’s important to note that irrigated agriculture occupies 4 times as much land as cities do.

But obviously we can't do away with agriculture! But we need to help farmers implement state-of-the-science irrigation methods and improve the productivity of rain-fed farms as soon as possible.

We need to adopt pragmatic choices to what and where we buy from. Buying everything locally simply isn’t possible for everyone. Why not import a water-intensive good from a water-rich area? Make sure that the water used to produce it is being used sustainably.

Climate change will make it tough for rain-fed farmlands where rains can become intense and severe. It is time the farmer got water-wise.