Innovative programs | Countries look for ways to reduce consumption while increasing production
Six countries produce 50 percent of the world’s exported food so if there is a crop failure in a key producing country, the impacts can be far reaching.
“If something happens climatically in one of these six countries, it has global impact,” said Hans Schrierer of the University of British Columbia’s faculty of land and food systems.
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Russia, Canada and the United States feed the world, while India and China look for ways to import food and conserve their water.
China is improving its corn and wheat production because these crops are not as water intensive. At the same time, it is importing more soybeans, cotton, beef, pork and chicken.
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“This is a very favourable policy for them. This way they can use the saved water for industrial purposes,” he said at a May 8-10 conference in Calgary called Water in a World of Seven Billion.
Climate change will make the Middle East hotter and drier, so those countries will import more food to save water.
Every country has different requirements for moisture depending on climate, soil and precipitation. Schrierer proposes countries best suited for growing certain crops should do so to make the best use of natural resources.
Water conservation makes economic sense in Alberta, said Roger Hohm, head of the province’s irrigation secretariat within Alberta Agriculture.
“Without doing it on purpose, we have seen some tremendous savings in water because of dollars,” he said.
“If you invest the dollars, there (are) opportunities there to make some huge water savings.”
He said in 1965, an irrigation farmer had to divert 1,000 millimetres of water to sprinkle 300 mm on a crop. Today he can divert 380 mm to deliver 300 mm.
Most efficiency gains were spurred by larger farms, less available labour to move equipment and higher energy costs to run the system.
The province and farmers also invested heavily in improvements to reduce seepage, measure use and prevent evaporation. There are about 8,000 kilometres of infrastructure, and about half is in pipelines.
And farmers are opting for more expansion. In the last five years, nine of the 13 farmer controlled districts have voted to expand to another 170,000 acres, said Hohm.
Ann Mills, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s under secretary for natural resources and environment, said that country lost 15 percent of its agricultural land between 1982 and 2007, mostly to urbanization.
“We have to grow more food on less land for more people,” she said.
To help ease the problem, the U.S. is trying to identify landscape initiatives on natural resources to protect soil and water.
The federal government provided the Bay Delta Initiative in California with $5.3 billion for conservation programs in five water districts to prevent spillage by lining irrigation canals, installing pipelines and improving irrigation systems.
The Northern Everglades project in Florida allowed 200 million acres to be bought for conservation easements to keep ranches, sugar cane farms and orange groves in operation. Projects were also put in place to replicate more historic water flows.
Across the country, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming are all involved in projects, which have saved 17 billion gallons of water.
- Tighten those taps. Check pipes, taps and toilets for leaks. You can save as much as 50 litres of water a day by fixing a dripping tap.
- Install water-saving devices on faucets and toilets.
- Turn water off while washing dishes instead of letting it run continuously.
- Adjust sprinklers so only the lawn is watered, not the road or nearby outbuildings.
- Adjust lawn mowers to a higher setting. A taller lawn shades roots and holds soil moisture better.
- For cold drinks, keep a pitcher of water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap.
- For the garden, install a micro-irrigation system, which comes with tubing, hardware and multiple spray heads to create a customized watering system.
