Agriculture faces many challenges every year, from the weather, to insects, to weeds, but a bigger battle is shaping up as cities demand for water continues to grow
“Water is limited, and water for agriculture is going to be limited in the future.”
“Without water the crops are not going to grow, without water in a dry year, they’re just not going to do it.”
“There has been quite a bit of controversy between the cities in the area and the landowners as to, not necessarily over who owns the water, but over how the permitting has gone on with the wells.”
Some say that the battle lines over water have already been drawn.
“If we can incentivize urban municipalities to reduce their per capita water use, then we can actually make some headway there. Municipal water use, the majority of that is outdoor water use also, almost 70%.”
Education needs to play a key role in the argument.
“They don’t have any idea how much water it takes to make a crop of corn, or a crop of soybeans, or a crop of cotton, if you don’t get the rain they just have no idea of how much water it takes.”
“They need for their customers, but we also need that water to produce food and fiber for those same people.”
Agricultural producers stress that they use as little water as possible because it’s the biggest expense in bringing in a crop.
“Agricultural use is the only use that’s due to decline over the next several decades, but agricultural production will likely increase, and it will increase because we will be irrigating smarter, and we’ll have new crops that are more drought resistant, and that comes from science and technology.”
I’m Kailey Carey, looking at Brazos Valley Agriculture, From The Ground Up.
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