Agricultural News
USDA Project Test Water-Saving Practices in Dry Areas
Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:37:03 CDT
A USDA project is trying out new ways to save water in places where farmers need it the most.
Saving water supplies in drier parts of the nation is the goal of a U.S. Department of Agriculture effort. A USDA Natural Resources Conservation grant is funding a three-year demonstration project, administered by the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District and Texas Tech University to show how strategic irrigation and crop system management can save water and help farmers.
Harold Grall is a farmer in Moore County, Texas. "This is, I think, good use of money. Instead of just direct payments to a farmer, we can show that we are using these resources, money resources to, you know, help especially in this area with our farming practices."
Nearly $500,000 in grant money will go to farmers, researchers, foundations and other groups trying out water-saving practices.
Salvador Salinas is a USDA NRCS Texas State Conservationist. "The Conservation Innovation Grant is an opportunity for these entities to receive some Federal financial assistance to help them go through the process of testing out their theories, their ideas on the land and then hopefully they'll pan out and NRCS will be able to take that technology and implement it on the ground."
Some of these water-saving theories are being tried in an area that pulls much of its irrigation from the Ogallala aquifer, a vast underground water source that stretches from South Dakota deep into the Texas High Plains.
Daniel Krienke, a farmer from Ochiltree County, Texas, said, "The overall goal would be if we can grow two hundred bushels of corn on twelve inches of added irrigation we think we can save approximately four to six inches of water application for that crop. On over a million acres of irrigated land that's huge. That's water that's left in the aquifer for future generations, for my kids and my grandkids and we extend the life of the aquifer."
The grant is one of 52 awarded across the nation this year by the USDA's NRCS.
Click on the play button in the video box below for a video version of this story.
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