Irrigation strategies for water-limited environments
Pakistan runs on the Indus. The Indus Basin Irrigation System, a network of three major dams, eighty-plus smaller barrages, and 60,000 kilometers of canals, irrigates over 16 million hectares. It is the largest contiguous irrigation system on the planet. And…
Turkey grows a lot of things the rest of the world eats. About 75% of the world’s hazelnuts come from its Black Sea coast. It leads global production of cherries, figs, and apricots. It’s the seventh-largest agricultural economy on the…
Farming on a Caribbean island is not like farming on a continental landmass. You are surrounded by water you cannot drink, the dry season lasts six months, and a September hurricane can undo a year of infrastructure in an afternoon.…
American agriculture runs on water that’s disappearing. The Colorado River’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, sit at roughly a third of capacity. The Ogallala Aquifer, which feeds irrigation across eight High Plains states, has dropped more than…
North Africa is running out of water. Morocco’s per-capita water availability has dropped from about 2,500 cubic meters in 1960 to somewhere around 600 today, and some projections put it below 500 by 2030. Egypt sits at roughly 560 cubic…
Last July, a tomato grower outside Riyadh showed me his drip lines at 2 PM. The air was 47°C. The polyethylene tubing was hot to the touch, not quite softening but close. His emitters were still delivering 1.6 liters per…
