Some argue that there is no place for agriculture in Arizona. Especially now as areas across the state grapple with depleting water supplies.
is more than 70% of water Arizona is used for farming every year, so some farmland actually has to stop producing.
And the remaining farms must find additional ways to save.
But destroying agriculture everywhere in the state is a mistake. Even if the water could be released for others to use.
Yuma feeds its people in winter
If you’re going to have a salad in the winter, it’s probably Yuma’s.area supply the nation With leafy greens, and for good reason.
It is one of the few warm places where it can be grown at this time of year.
Some have also suggested that agricultural products could be sourced from overseas, but that is becoming increasingly dangerous.
Consider the UK, which depends on farms in Spain and Morocco for lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers this time of year.
Unseasonable weather has cut yields this year, leaving most UK supermarkets unable to source enough produce to meet demand.many stores have Start distribution purchase At least for the next few weeks.
Pinal helps keep milk on shelves in Arizona
The same is true for farms in Pinal County, where thousands of acres have already gone uncultivated this year due to water outages.
This area a significant portion of the state’s milkand although there has been a lot of hype about Saudis using La Paz county water to grow alfalfa and feed their cattle, most of what Pinal produces is sent to nearby dairy farms for final production. It will be sent to supermarkets in Phoenix and Tucson.
Without these dairy products, milk, cheese and other dairy products would have to be sourced elsewhere.
This has an increased cost and environmental impact. Both the carbon emitted to transport long distances and the water consumed to grow fodder crops elsewhere.
Given that Arizona is one of the top alfalfa producers in the nation, it would take more acres to feed the same number of cows.
There’s a reason farmers grow what they do
In the absence of the willingness to make these trade-offs, it means that even those of us who live in cities have a stake in ensuring that Arizona’s agriculture successfully transitions to a low-water future.
Indeed, many speculate that this is a simple matter of persuading farmers, either through goodwill or coercion, to plant crops that use less water. Some have suggested banning alfalfa production in order to
New Paradigm:Your water bill will be higher.it may not be all that bad
But there’s a reason Arizona farmers grow alfalfa (or leafy greens, for example). It has a market. Farmers cannot invest in seeds or equipment and hope to find a buyer who will recoup those costs at harvest.
Anything that grows needs buyers and an infrastructure to process what is produced. Also, niche products like agave can be more expensive, but can only support that much demand.
As a result, many farmers rely on commodities such as alfalfa and must generate sufficient yields from these commodities in order to make a living.
Promising water research is underway
Indeed, much research is underway to help farmers use less water and remain economically viable.
The Central Arizona project has already proven that gravity-fed drip irrigation is possible. 30% to 50% reduction in water usagedepending on the crop without compromising yield. That pilot project is now facing a significant test of alfalfa in the Yuma area, which like many other parts of Arizona is suffering from salinity.
Most farmers there rely on flood irrigation to wash these harmful salt deposits off their plants. I might try the technique.
Meanwhile, the University of Arizona created an initiative To help farmers survive a drier future.
Its scope is yet to be fleshed out, but researchers at the university are already beginning to delve into important questions, such as whether low-water-use cover crops can provide enough nutrition for cows ( (even though it may never be) as good as alfalfa).
Combine this and other research with millions of state and federal funding, and more farm executives willing to try new things, and Arizona’s fields could become a laboratory for innovation. There is a nature.
Are we willing to make this commitment?
But I’m not sure anyone outside of farming understands what that entails.
A one-off grant if you are serious about finding ways to minimize the impact when land is permanently unproductive and to ensure that your remaining fields use less water than they used to. Gold has no effect.
Arizona needs to accelerate its ongoing research, get more fields in its experiments, and once it understands what works, train its farm workers to get the most out of it.
Farmers alone cannot change this paradigm.
It requires sustained commitment from all of us.
to reach All Hands joanna.allhands@arizonarepublic.com. on Twitter: @joanna allhands.
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