A Turning Point For Water In Agriculture

Agriculture in this century has faced its share of challenges, from large-scale destructive weather events to environmental protests calling for the elimination of vital production tools. But over the past few decades a singular issue has emerged, a combination of both natural and man-made forces: water sustainability.

The problem comes down, in great part, to two huge concerns. The first is water quality — agriculture must minimize the release of potentially harmful nutrients into ecosystems. The second is water quantity — stakeholders need to ensure there is enough to grow food and fiber.

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Over the next year in our series called “Water Watch,” the editors of CropLife® magazine will explore many facets of this issue, pinpointing the key problems; identifying who and what are driving the visibility and regulation of water; describing what the industry is doing on national, regional and local fronts; and listing the challenges for ag going forward. We start with an overview and will then visit each topic more thoroughly in coming months.

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Pointing Fingers

Agriculture can hardly take all the blame when it comes to water quality issues, though many media and environmental groups identify ag as the primary offender. The list varies across the country, but other major factors that contribute to problems include air pollution, sediment loading, chemical contamination, invasive species, dredge dumping, sewage treatment plants, polluted groundwater and stormwater runoff — which in some developed regions is the fastest growing source of pollution.

Many of these variables can be traced back to “ever increasing human population growth and demands on the ecosystem related to that growth,” says Mike Twining, vice president of sales and marketing at CropLife 100 member Willard Agri-Service, Worton, MD. Willard has made a major commitment to work with clients to solve problems in the Chesapeake Bay.

Growing populations also play a role in areas of diminishing water supplies. “Rising populations and other increasing demands on fresh water supplies are creating dual burdens on agriculture,” says Rich Panowicz, vice president North American sales, Valley Irrigation.

Drought has been the other major cause of water shortages — with drought events occurring more frequently and in more parts of the country than ever before.

A study by the University of California’s Center for Watershed Sciences and Agricultural Issues Center reports that the 2014 drought “is responsible for the greatest absolute reduction in water availability for California agriculture ever seen.” And while huge storms pummeled the state in December, it will take much more water to climb out of what some call a 10-year drought pattern there.

The High Plains states of Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota, never blessed with abundant water in the first place, have faced droughts in recent years as well.

In many water-stressed regions, agriculture, humans and environmental interests battle for the precious resource.

Government at federal, state and local levels is entering the water fray more each year. The granddaddy law of them all, the Clean Water Act, continues to evolve, most recently as EPA attempts to stake out more land for classification as “waters of the United States” — because water can collect seasonally there. Hence, the land would be subject to extensive agency regulation, none of it good for agriculture.

Perhaps on a positive note, the Ohio legislature passed Senate Bill 150 this summer, which requires fertilizer applicators to get a specific fertilizer application license, with accompanying credited classes. It seemed to have the support of the ag community there.

Quality Cases-In-Point

Water quality problems in the eastern half of the U.S. span from the Great Lakes in the north, to the Gulf Coast and Florida in the south, to vast portions of the East Coast.

Eutrophication is the ecosystem response to the addition of artificial or natural substances, mainly phosphates, through detergents, fertilizers, or sewage, to an aquatic system.

Algal bloom.

Trouble in the Great Lakes got major press last summer when an algal bloom in Lake Erie’s western basin tainted water that serves as the source for Toledo, OH’s drinking water system. The algae released microsystin, a toxin that induces vomiting, diarrhea and liver damage.

ABC News stated the bloom “covered an area so big it was visible from space.” (Such is the nature of water reporting.) It was, in fact, very small compared to past events that date back to the 1970s and ’80s, when sediment caused multiple algal problems and led to implementation of conservation practices such as no-till to reduce soil movement. “But while this was a very small bloom, prevailing winds pushed algae right up to Toledo’s intake valves — and the city only has one water intake,” reports Chris Henney, president of the Ohio AgriBusiness Association (OABA).

The worst algal bloom in the western basin in known history took place in 2011. It was a real wake-up call, says Henney. Since then members of the agricultural community in the region and a host of others “have been working hard to solve the problems,” specifically to reduce the dissolved reactive phosphorus load reaching Lake Erie. One recent measure is an robust new 4R certification program for retailers.

Cooperation within the ag community has also been a huge factor in efforts to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay where nutrients have promoted algae blooms for many years as well. In this case the blooms block sunlight from reaching underwater grasses and during decomposition, rob the water of oxygen and suffocate marine life.

The Chesapeake Bay Program cites excess nutrients as the main cause of the Bay’s poor health, though opinions on the issue are varied.

To address agriculture’s contributions to Bay conditions, Willard Agri-Service’s Twining says that over the last 20 years growers in the region have adopted a significant level of 4R Best Management Practices. The swath of farmland involved is considerable: The bulk of the Bay physically resides in Maryland, but its watershed encompasses a much larger area, stretching from New York State to Virginia and covering one-sixth of the Eastern Seaboard.

Florida boasts “one of the most regulated places in America and perhaps the world when it comes to water,” says Frank Giles, editor of CropLife’s sister publication Florida Grower. The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) has faced conflicts over water quality and flooding for decades. The problem: phosphorus entering the water system basically fertilized the entire region, disrupting native plant life. The Everglades Forever Act, passed in 1994, has solved much of the problem. It focuses on water quality and managing the movement and distribution of water going into the Everglades.

Here, and throughout the rich, varied soils and landscapes of the state, work still needs to be done — which CropLife will cover — but growers are teaming up with government, researchers and engineers to generate new solutions to alleviate water problems.

Perhaps the country’s largest water quality challenge lies in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB), where waterways spanning 31 states and two Canadian provinces ultimately drain into the Gulf of Mexico. Here, nutrients have contributed to the formation each summer of the world’s second largest hypoxic zone, an area of low oxygen (adverse to most aquatic life) caused by the growth and decomposition of algae.

The U.S. Geological Survey says that agricultural sources contribute more than 70% of the nutrients that enter the Gulf of Mexico.

The scope and complexity of the issue is unparalleled. In 2008, the 12 states along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers — which contribute water to the Gulf — were tasked by EPA with developing their own nutrient loss reduction strategies (NLRSs) to lower nitrogen and phosphorus releases. The goal: cut nutrient loads in the Mississippi River Basin by 45% by 2015.

All 12 states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee) have now developed their own strategy, at least at the draft stage.

Iowa was the second state to complete its plan. “Iowa’s cropping system, coupled with our nutrient rich soils and weather variability … they’re the reasons that we’ve got a leaky system, and we lose some nutrients to our surface waters,” says Matt Lechtenberg, water quality coordinator for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship — and point person for the Iowa Water Quality Initiative. (The Initiative received financial support in 2014 to the tune of $4.4 million from the Iowa state legislature.) Many growers here have been willing to begin changing their fertility practices and are signing on to learn new production techniques.

In December, Illinois released its NLRS for public comment. The state is well-positioned for changes, thanks to its Keep It for the Crop by 2025 (KIC by 2025) program, launched in 2011. Administered by the Illinois Council on Best Management Practices, the program is providing a host of educational and financial resources to growers and their ag suppliers.

Areas Short On Water

As previously mentioned, much-publicized droughts in California have caused huge problems. The University of California’s Center for Watershed Sciences and Agricultural Issues Center reports the 2014 drought will cost California’s economy $2.2 billion and 17,100 seasonal and part-time jobs. Growers, particularly in the San Joaquin Valley, plan to fallow large acreages. Most will be in lower-value irrigated pasture and annual crops such as corn and dry beans, but vegetable and fruit production will also take a hit.

Other factors add to the dilemma. The state’s amazing irrigation delivery system is some 100 years old, and the aging infrastructure needs updating. The system was designed based on a population model of about 15 million people; today, there are 35 million water users in the state, says Ray Batten, large growers relations, Valley Irrigation. That population rise and many farmers’ switch to more lucrative (yet water-intensive) crops such as berries and nuts strain resources. In addition, regulators have set aside a large portion of the system’s useful flow for endangered species and habitat.

Growers in Nebraska and Kansas are no strangers to producing crops in dry conditions. But the need for water has become greater in recent years as the western Corn Belt has pushed even further westward. Farmers switching from traditional items such as wheat to corn have seen the value in irrigating corn crops selling at record prices.

Solutions At Hand

When it comes to finding solutions to water quality issues, one thing has become clear: Cooperation among local stakeholders has worked. And as described several times already, many answers revolve around use of components in the fertilizer industry’s 4R recommendations.

Use of fertilizer stabilizers is increasing, and new enhanced efficiency products are coming to market. In addition, growers are planting more cover crops, which internally “tie up” the nutrients during the off-season, preventing them from being lost from the field, says Dr. Harold Reetz, Reetz Agronomics LLC. They also help physically hold nutrients and soil and keep them from being lost in surface run-off.

Reetz explains that drainage water management technology can help hold water and dissolved nutrients in the field longer, allowing more nutrients to be utilized by the crops or to react with the soil, reducing losses.

Water shortage solutions for agriculture may come most readily in the form of advancing irrigation use and technology.

Valley Irrigation’s Batten says simply, “In California, irrigation is not ‘risk management.’ The farm ground in the state is a desert, and for the most part there would be nothing grown there without irrigation.” Center pivots and low volume platforms such as drip and micro spray systems are being used — and fine-tuned — throughout the state.

Nebraska is the country’s number-one irrigated state, according the USDA’s recently released 2013 Irrigation Farm and Ranch Survey. Growers here have dramatically changed their management practices and converted large portions of flood-irrigated land to center pivots and linear machines, Valley Irrigation’s Panowicz says.

Many growers use Variable-Rate Irrigation (VRI), which is based on topography, soil data maps, yield data and other factors, to apply water only where it needs to be. Today they can also use advanced control and monitoring capabilities with those VRI systems, even accessed via tablets and smartphones.

Nebraska actually has a vast resource of underground water to draw from. The state’s unique Natural Resource Districts — governed by water users themselves — have provided the framework to ensure the right balance between water use and ensure long-term viability of the resource.

No matter the water challenge, “we must continue to adopt best management practices, monitor the situation and work cooperatively among agricultural interests, government, and the general public,” says Reetz. “We have some excellent positive examples to draw from, and we need to carefully document them and promote similar approaches and similar teamwork across all areas.”

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