Agricultural Transitions for a Net Zero Economy, special feature - irrigation
This article is a guest post by Dan Northrup of Galvanize Climate Solutions, LLC.
Getting to net zero requires changes in agriculture. Like transportation where emissions result from multiple transportation modes – shipping, aviation, light duty, trucking, etc. - agriculture is comprised of many different production systems. In transportation, different technical developments are needed for each category. Similarly, it is important to consider the geographic regions, production systems, and end markets for agricultural decarbonization solutions.
In this article, I highlight the potential for irrigation management in regions of the Ogallala aquifer to extend economic productivity and achieve net zero goals. I believe that a combination of an incentive system and education can promote the adoption of technology and minimize the economic effects of water use reductions.
I hope that multiple stakeholders recognize the importance of their interest and the opportunity that water management presents:
Kansas stakeholders – Water conservation is an urgent issue, and it is important to find a path that internalizes the cost of water management and minimizes disruption to farm operations.
Corporate Sustainability Professionals – For many food and beverage companies, upstream scope 3 emissions are the largest part of their footprint, and animal products are often the largest single ingredient. This region has a high concentration of beef and dairy production, and water management programs create multiple opportunities to meet sustainability goals by engaging this portion of the supply chain. By emphasizing the immediate business relevance of sustainability programs for procurement and operations teams, this program can help to build wider corporate buy in.
Investors – A new production system for agriculture based on resource conservation represents a shift that creates room for technology and an opportunity for investors. This program would create a large customer base for data driven agricultural decisions that could scale to other geographies and farm decision points.
Climate Advocates –Water stewardship is a complement to regenerative agriculture that supports a transition to net-zero agriculture. Incorporation of more farm technology will present opportunities to influence farm decisions for nitrogen fertilizer and carbon sequestration that have significant climate impact.
Policy Makers –Water is a bi-partisan issue with private sector interest. Public money that supports water stewardship has the potential to create durable change.
Water
Agriculture is the largest consumer of fresh water[1] and the demand for water from agriculture and other industries is growing. A large portion of the water used for agriculture comes from underground aquifers and because withdraws exceed the natural recharge rate many critical aquifers are overdrawn[2]. If use continues at this pace, those aquifers will not support irrigation at some point in the future.
Irrigation is critical to stabilize production through variable rainfall. Losing this capability will have a ripple effect throughout the agricultural economy spanning the upstream businesses that sell to farmers and downstream businesses including animal, food, and biofuel producers that rely on grain and forages. Maintaining access to reliable irrigation and changing an aquifer’s trajectory requires solutions that recognize the unique geologic characteristics and farm economies that it supports.
In my opinion, the High Plains aquifer is a compelling geography to build a coalition of public and private sector funders to collaborate with the agricultural community to incentivize water conservation and extend aquifer lifetimes.
The reasons for this opinion are:
Irrigation is critical to local economies:
It is estimated that the aquifer adds $3.8B to the value of farmland in Kansas. The products of these farms support a multibillion-dollar downstream economy that includes food (crops and animals), feed, and biofuel production.[3]
Data and models that describe the water are excellent and improving:
The Kansas Geologic Survey has extensively characterized aquifer levels using a network of tracking wells and developed models that connect irrigation pumping to aquifer levels. These data and models can guide stewardship efforts to transition to sustainable pumping volumes.
The issue is urgent and aligned with financial timelines:
Large portions of the aquifer in Southwest Kansas have usable lifetimes under 25 years[4]. This timeframe is consistent with lending timeframes and may impact mortgages on physical assets that rely on local agricultural production and the jobs it supports.
New Technologies Enable Water Savings Without Productivity Losses
Technology including soil moisture probes, precipitation monitors, and measurements of pumping volume create the technical potential to measure and optimize water usage so that reducing irrigation volumes does not have to jeopardize profitability. For example, in the Sheridan 6 Local Enhanced Management Area growers voluntarily agreed to reduce pumping by >20%. With continued focus, withdraws have gone down more than 30%[5] which reduced the rate of aquifer decline by 80% while increasing profitability[6].
Water stewardship will extend the life of the aquifer:
Reducing withdraws has stabilized the aquifer at certain tracking wells and at economically achievable reductions the usable lifetime of the aquifer can be doubled[7].
Given these features, I suggest three activities for broader deployment of water saving technologies.
Build a fund to support water smart activities. To build a regional foundation and support for ongoing programs it is important to establish the materiality of groundwater stewardship to local assets[8]. Based on an economic impact assessment on regional businesses that could see changing values due to ground water depletion, modelers can assess the value of water stewardship. Private sector entities would contribute to a fund targeted toward water interventions that is rooted in the value of groundwater to their enterprise. As there is significant interest in water stewardship in the public sector, private sector funds are likely to see a significant match in the form of government grants.
Develop an incentive structure that makes direct payments to farmers from the water stewardship fund based on their success in maintaining productivity with lower water usage. This payment structure would deploy measurement and reporting devices to document improvements and through high quality, trusted data tracking tools.
Create extension and education programs for water management. Education is a critical component of practice adoption. Toward this end, Kansas State recently extended the Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS)[9] network. This program was designed to allow growers an opportunity to test new technologies in a highly controlled research setting[10]. USDA programs to support on farm testing such as Conservation Innovation Grants or Regional Conservation Practices Programs can support technology adoption and education programs to give growers the tools needed to productively manage crops under limited irrigation.
I believe that the combination of incentives, funding, and education will promote improve water management that significantly extend the life of the aquifer. This will maintain the value of land and other assets that depend on reliable irrigation while supporting local communities.
Synergies with other environmental indicators
The environmental footprint of agriculture extends beyond water to carbon and nitrogen cycles. Water stewardship reduces emissions by lowering energy demand – by saving 4 acre-inches growers avoid 0.1 MT of CO2 emissions[11].
Nitrogen fertilizers are the largest source of emissions in crop production[12]. Nitrogen and water use efficiency are tightly linked and by improving water management growers can improve nitrogen use efficiency[13] and significantly reduce GHG emissions[14].
Efficient application is just the first step that producers can take toward improving productivity with limited water usage. Water productivity can be improved by enhancing infiltration and increasing soil water holding capacity. These soil health parameters are outcomes that gradually improve with adoption of conservation practices[15]. Longer lead technologies including new crop types and crop varieties developed specifically for water stewardship could be deployed to increase landscape diversity and further reduce water demand and improve ecosystem function.
Conclusions
The availability of water is among the most pressing issues facing agribusiness today, and I believe that significant financial incentives using pooled private and public funding can be mobilized to address this issue. The tools to manage for lower water usage are available today and the combination of technology, funding, and education can lead to rapid improvements in water efficiency. A focus on water management will naturally lead to adoption of practices that reduce the carbon and nitrogen footprints of agriculture. Water is an excellent starting point for efforts that promote resilient production and GHG reduction in agriculture.
[1] USGS, Total Water Use in the United States
[2] Nature, Rapid groundwater decline and some cases of recovery in aquifers globally
[3] Kansas State University Department of Agricultural Economics Extension, The Value of Groundwater in the High Plains Aquifer of Western Kansas
[4] Kansas Geological Survey, The High Plains Aquifer
[5] Kansas Geoligical Survey, Kansas Geological Survey Shows Stabilized Water Levels in Aquifer Possible
[6] Kansas State Research and Extension, Study: Farmers use less water, earn more profits in Sheridan County
[7] Kansas Geological Survey, 2023 Status of the High Plains Aquifer
[8] Kansas State University Department of Agricultural Economics Extension, The Value of Groundwater in the High Plains Aquifer of Western Kansas
[9] Kansas State University, Testing Ag Performance Solutions
[10] Irrigation Leader, Teaching Through TAPS, UNL’s Performance Competition
[11] Nature Communications, Greenhouse gas emissions from US irrigation pumping and implications for climate-smart irrigation policy
[12] Nature Plants, The environmental impact of fertilizer embodied in a wheat-to-bread supply chain
[13] Colorado State Extension, Nitrogen and Irrigation Management – 0.514
[14] PNAS, Novel technologies for emission reduction complement conservation agriculture to achieve negative emissions from row-crop production
[15] NRCS, A Hedge against Drought: Why Healthy Soil is ‘Water in the Bank’