Irrigation Irrigation is more expensive than buying a water pump for using river water. And not every farm gets the official permission for drilling a new well, as there is not enough groundwater available everywhere. »When it comes to water supply, agriculture is only third on the list, being lower in priority than the drinking water supply for the population and the industrial water supply«, says Steidl. Moreover, not every field is located on a river carrying enough clean water. If this is lacking or if there is no permission to extract groundwater, it often becomes too expensive for most farms to transport water from sources more than two kilometers away. In some places, the increasing water demand of agriculture and other sectors may in future result in water scarcity. This in turn would probably cause water prices to rise, making investments in irrigation systems less worthwhile. Schuler demands: »In this context, the farms need reliability for their planning. Legislators and water authorities must enable long-term profitability calculations for water rights«. WHICH ALTERNATIVES ARE THERE? If irrigation is not an option, farmers have to rely on alternatives to compensate for the lack of water in their fields. These include the integration of new arable crops, less intensive tillage, direct sowing without ploughing and weather-adapted sowing times. »It doesn’t always have to be irrigation«, Schuler remarks. »It is certain that farms have to adapt to new environmental conditions. But thinking outside the box, we can see that it is possible to get by with less precipitation. There may be fewer wheat fields, but a farm can adapt to lower expected yields with its entire management. In the end, the farm may feature a less intensive cultivation system using less fertilizer and pesticide, which matches the amount of precipitation«. Steidl adds: »Let’s look at the Mediterranean countries: the hotspot for irrigation. But even there, not all fields are irrigated. Or let’s look at Australia, another typical example. In Germany, one might at first think cultivation not worthwhile considering those yields, but although Australian The drilling of a well that can be used to pump groundwater for the irrigation of agricultural fields is a considerable investment. 24 25
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