Article Highlights Strategies for Improving Water Security for Agriculture

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology’s (CAST) Voices of Agriculture series published an article by Clinton R Krehbiel of Texas Tech University, noting that water is the backbone of farming and ranching in the Southern High Plains, yet it is becoming increasingly unreliable. Krehbiel explains that water insecurity has many impacts of agriculture and that although farmers and ranchers make efforts to adapt, improving water security in semi-arid regions will require a multifaceted approach rooted in science, incentives, and collaboration. Krehbiel proposes six strategies, including compensation for water stewardship, research on crop alternatives, water accounting, and diversified rural economies that involve value-added processing and agrivoltaics.