Water Crisis Seen Big Threat To U. S. West, South – for Jul. 29, 2010

One-third of U. S. counties are facing a high risk that future water demand will outstrip supplies, spelling potential disaster for central and southern states and the crops grown there, a new study says. Persistently parched grasslands, withering wheat and corn crops, and strained city utilities are a growing probability for 14 states seen at


Israel To Help African Farmers Fight Desert

Having “conquered the desert” at home, Israel is ready to share technology and skills with African countries struggling to sustain agricultural output due to increasingly unreliable rains, an Israeli minister said. Shalom Simhon, Israel’s minister of agriculture and rural development, said sharing know-how, especially in irrigation and water management, was his focus on a tour

Australia’s “Top End” Too Dry To Become Food Bowl

The dream of turning Australia’s tropical north into a major food bowl to replace drought-stricken southern farmlands and feed a future Asia has been shattered by a new report released Feb. 8. Despite a billion litres of annual rain, the equivalent of 2,000 Sydney Harbours, northern Australia has limited water, with 65 per cent of


Water — Our Valuable Resource

In North America, most of us take one thing for granted – water! I am not an environmentalist, reminding you of the importance of conservation, although I know it is an important issue. However, we don’t have to go long without water to realize how precious it is in our daily lives. Living on a

Remote Monitoring A Keystroke Away

When Bruce Shewfelt was looking for examples of remote irrigation monitoring one Saturday afternoon, all he had to do was log on to the Internet from his Morden office. The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration consultant was almost immediately downloading information on reservoir levels, downstream flows below the reservoir and current use rates – from an


California Farms Lose Main Water Source To Drought

California’s main source of irrigation water is expected to go dry this year for most of its growers due to drought, idling at least 60,000 workers and up to one million acres of farmland, federal officials and experts said Feb. 20. The zero allocation for most of the farmers who buy water from the federally

Iraq To Revive Dead Farmland By Sucking Out Salt

Iraq started flushing excess salinity out of millions of acres of land Dec. 1 in a project aimed at cleansing rivers, breathing new life into dying soils and reviving what was once part of “the fertile crescent.” Though Iraq is wetter and more arable than many of its desert-covered neighbours, centuries of irrigation and overuse


Zambia looks to diversify

Zambia is completing a model farm meant to encourage economic diversification from copper and cobalt mining to agriculture, Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said on Feb. 2. The 155,000-hectre Nansanga farm will be ready for foreign and local investors this year as the country pushes to grow more export crops to reduce dependency of copper exports,