A Plea for the Water in All We Use, Make and Eat
“We’re using tomorrow’s water to meet today’s food demand,” warned Sandra Postel, National Geographic Freshwater Fellow, helping to provoke a meaningful discussion on water as it relates to food at the...
View ArticleAustralia’s Grand Water Experiment – Take Two
Australia’s iconic Murray River, beloved for the red gum forests that line its banks and the prized Murray cod that ply its waters, is suffering big time from the high demands placed upon its finite...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Texas Water District Acts to Slow Depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer
Aerial view of center-pivot irrigation in the High Plains, with its distinctive circular shape. Photo by John Charlton, Kansas Geological Survey. A group of farmers in northwest Texas began 2012 under...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Farmers and Conservationists Working Together in the Colorado River Basin
Irrigation in Cortez, CO. © Blue Legacy/Oscar Durand Irrigation of crops – our food – is one of the most important uses of the water from rivers in the Colorado River Basin. From the hay and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From Texas to India to the Horn of Africa, Concern about Weather, Water, and...
Women tend paddy rice in Tamil Nadu, India. Photo by McKay Savage/Flickr Creative Commons. Hardly a week goes by without new reasons to be concerned about the impact of changing precipitation...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Power of a Radically Affordable Irrigation Pump
A Bangladeshi farmer operates a treadle pump to irrigate her family's rice field. Photo courtesy of International Development Enterprises. One of the more transformative technologies ever developed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
That Sinking Feeling About Groundwater in Texas
Researchers download data from a center pivot sprinkler, a type of irrigation system commonly used in the U.S. Great Plains, to reconstruct the amount of water and time it took to irrigate an area....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Waste Food, Waste Water — A Message From World Water Week
World Water Week—an annual conference in Stockholm dedicated to discussing the management of global water resources—opened Monday with a message about cleaning your plate. Food waste, according to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Making Rain in the American Southwest: How Irrigation Strengthens the Monsoon
The water vapor tower, or ‘aerological accelerator’ of Starr and Anati, as depicted in the 1973 Scientific American article ‘The Control of the Water Cycle’ by Jose P. Peixoto and M. Ali Kettani Mad...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Small-scale Irrigation Boosts Incomes and Food Security in sub-Saharan Africa
A solar-powered drip irrigation system waters vegetable crops in northern Benin. Photo by Jennifer A. Burney For millions of poor farm families in sub-Saharan Africa, access to water makes the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Indian Farmers Cope With Climate Change and Falling Water Tables
By Meha Jain, National Geographic Young Explorer Grantee Climate change is predicted to negatively impact millions of farmers across the globe, with some studies predicting up to a 40% decline in crop...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Arizona Irrigators Share Water with Desert River
As drought and high water demands deplete more and more rivers in the western United States, it’s easy to assume a future of dryness is the inescapable fate of once vibrant streams. But in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Campbell’s Challenge: Growing Lots of Tomatoes in Water-Scarce California
Huge numbers of tomatoes are processed for Campbell in Dixon, California. (Photo: Ceres) By Peyton Fleming and Brooke Barton DIXON, CA – California and tomatoes are synonymous. Drive along Interstate...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Smarter Irrigation Returns Water to Arizona’s Verde River
What do you get when 21st century “smart” technology hooks up with a 19th century irrigation ditch? The short answer: more water-wise farming and a healthier river. That’s the story of this innovative...
View ArticleClik here to view.
To Understand Water, Learn the Math
This map portrays the volume of water being depleted from rivers, lakes and aquifers on a daily basis (MGD = million gallons per day). Note that some of the highest rates of water consumption are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Corn Remains King in USDA Irrigation Survey
By Brooke Barton Senior Program Director, Water Program, Ceres It’s no secret that our agricultural industry is very thirsty, gobbling up 80 percent of the freshwater that America consumes each year....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wetland Revival: Using impact investment to restore nature
Conservation interests and agencies gathered along the Murray River in Australia earlier this month to witness the return of water to a wetland system that now rarely receives floodwater from the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Smarter Irrigation Might Save Rare Mussels and Ease a Water War
Casey Cox, Executive Director of the Flint River Partnership, checks the control panel on a sprinkler system equipped with advanced irrigation scheduling technology. Photo by Sandra Postel Casey Cox,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Market-Based Strategy for Sustainable Water Management
The Murray river flows along Ned’s Corner in Northwest Victoria, Australia. Photo © Mark Schapper By Brian Richter, Chief Scientist, Water, The Nature Conservancy Australia is one of the driest...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Small-scale Irrigation Boosts Incomes and Food Security in sub-Saharan Africa
A solar-powered drip irrigation system waters vegetable crops in northern Benin. Photo by Jennifer A. Burney For millions of poor farm families in sub-Saharan Africa, access to water makes the...
View Article
