Water Challenges & Agriculture

As Arizona enters into the deepest mandatory cut made to date for Colorado River operations—with a declared Tier 2a shortage to be implemented in 2023—a holistic discussion of the role that agriculture plays in the future of reduced water supplies is critically important.

Arizona is currently in the worst megadrought experienced in the past 1,200 years, and Arizona farmers are facing major cuts to water supplies provided by the Central Arizona Project (CAP)—a 336-mile canal system that for over 30 years has supplied Arizona’s cities and farmlands. As part of mandatory cutbacks due to the declaration of a shortage, farmers in Pinal County will see their Colorado River water allotment cut by over 60% in 2022, and no CAP surface water deliveries will be made to central Arizona agriculture in 2023.

Land in Arizona, like much of the Southwest, has been drying up with extended drought conditions (and more intense winter freezes), which means crops dry up quicker, growing seasons are shorter, and harvests are smaller.

In response to water cutbacks, Arizona farmers and growers may need to stop irrigating up to a third of farmlands and, instead, leave them dry and fallow. Farmers have secured $45 million from state and federal agencies to drill more wells to pump more groundwater and build other infrastructure to help augment the water loss from CAP reductions. However, groundwater in Arizona—particularly in rural areas—is being depleted by large, industrial farming operations and mega-dairies; and the majority of Arizona counties lack any groundwater regulation or effective groundwater management plan. In areas where groundwater is managed, many of those basins are in the red zone—meaning we are extracting water faster than it can be replenished. Groundwater management throughout Arizona needs to be addressed, and farmers must participate in those efforts.

Water supply limitations can help to form an adaptive approach to agriculture—building upon water conservation practices that some farmers already use—in order to address the water challenges Arizona faces.

Adaptive Agriculture: A Solution to Our Water Crisis?

Current water messaging focuses on the fact that 70% of Arizona water is used by agriculture and, therefore, the solution lies in cutting agriculture to save water. What this message lacks, however, is a discussion of the critical role that agriculture plays in food security and economic development, and also the fundamental role that agriculture plays in the water cycle and ecosystem. By simply cutting it—rather than adapting it— we are headed down a short-sighted, dangerous path.

Taking a holistic, integrated approach to food-energy-water decision making will help agriculture adapt to a drier, hotter Arizona.

Read on: Adaptive Agriculture