User:Cincy7526

Farming in the Southwest Living in New Mexico it is obvious that we have a water issue. Our largest river turns to a stream during the winter, and our lakes are at the lowest point in recorded history. A lot of the problem is contributed from the drought that the southwest has been experiencing for the past ten years. With these two implication together, New Mexico's already limited water supply has taken a turn for the worse. The situation is now threatening the state of New Mexico's economic and environmental sustainability. The increase in population and the extreme drought is putting more strain on our limited water supply. Be this as it may, the state can still cut down on its wasteful water use. The largest culprit in water consumption, according to the New Mexico state government, is agriculture. According to Postel, Daily, Ehrlich, it's old fashioned method of flood irrigation only yields 65 percent of the water put in(941). That means we are losing 35 percent of our irrigation to water runoff. To make matters worse, this figure then does not even include the 90% of the water required by terrestrial plants that is lost through transpiration (Morrison 650). As scary as this may sound, conserving water is an easy fix. In order to succeed, the State of New Mexico need to embark on legislature that includes taxing water consumption in agricultural and subsidizing farmers who use watering methods like drip and sprinkler irrigation As of 2012, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico rank 48, 49 and 50 in percent of water per square foot. As a state, we still use an estimate of 3,256.85 million gallon per day according to the New Mexico Water Science Center. Of those 3,256.85 million gallons per day, New Mexico Water Science Center predicts that 2860 million gallons are used on irrigation. That is 88 percent of our water use a day that goes to our plants. Of this 2860 gallons used in flood irrigation, 1001 million gallons are wasted through run off leaving only 1859 million gallons of water for the plant. To then measure how much of the 1859 million gallons actually yield a biochemical function for the crop, Muillneax, Morrison, and Baker recommend the Penman & Schofield ratio. The Penman & Schofield ratio is used to find the rate of carbon uptake leading to transpiration or evaporation of water from aerial parts of plants. Using this method 929 million gallons are transpired, leaving only 930 million gallons to maintain homeostasis at both the plant and cellular level. With so much water wasted in agricultural, it is questionable why we continue to use such wasteful methods. The State of the New Mexico grows a large variety of crops including: green chili, pecans, and a large variety of beans and cereal crops. In New Mexico, as mentioned above, flood irrigation is used to water these plants. Flood irrigation is a method that uses gravity to move the water across the field using small canals. Rockstrom describes the process from start to finish beginning with the initial application of water: “as water is applied to the top end of the field, it will then flow or advance over the field length. After the water reaches the end of the field it will either run-off or start to pond. As the inflow ceases the water will continue to runoff and infiltrate until the entire field is drained"(1998). Based off this process one can imagine the inefficiency. Especially when the amount of water to grow a healthy metric ton, based off the experiment done by Rockstrom, is about 1480 meters³ of water while an average bean is only 580 meters³of water (2000). The best opportunities for agricultural water conservation may be in reducing the loss of water in the delivery, rather than in reducing the actual amount of water consumed by the crop (Postel

942). However, this may be easier said than done, the benefits of agricultural water conservation vary depending on crop, soil types, and location. What may benefit one farmer in New Mexico may not benefit another.  To top it all off, changing watering methods cost farmers money and time that many do not have in these tough economic times.

The State of New Mexico cannot ban farming. In the United States New Mexico is in the top ten states of food output (Tugel 86). Also, its dry environment is perfect for the plants like green chili, pecans, and cotton. Plus, these farms are crucial to New Mexico's economy producing 1,807 million dollars of GDP in 2011 (Bureau of Business & Economic Research, UNM). Let’s not forget the culture that runs through New Mexico farming. The State is built around using the land and its water for food for thousands of years. If the state simply eliminated farming, a huge chuck of the culture would be lost. In other words, to keep New Mexico productive, we need to farm. But, new innovation and water conservation ideas need to be implanted in order sustain future farming. Many other states and countries have had great success in their new water policies and technology. These new ideas helped states like California drastically cut back on the amount of water they used. They found that having a set of governmental guidelines and infrastructure can limit the amount of water private farmer’s use in irrigation. Also, new watering systems, like drip irrigation and sprinkler systems, have proved far more effective than the basic flood irrigation. Last, the advancement in technology is leading us to drought resistant plants that can survive off of less water.

	The most influential solution that the state of New Mexico could implement is taxing water irrigation. By taxing water consumption in agriculture, the government of New Mexico, can force farmers into conserving water.  Currently, the law in New Mexico for using water to irrigate your land, according to the New Mexico Acequia Association, is "is owning land with a manmade diversion from a stream and beneficial use associated with the irrigation". In other words, as long as a farmer owns the right to irrigate they can use as much as they need.  David Zilberman and Margriet Caswell suggest that “a simple tax can cut down on the use of water” (226). For instance, they constructed a controlled experiment that regulated water consumption of farmers in six counties and how much water they conserved through higher tax rates. Through their study, they found that a 30% tax rate on the amount of water consumed in irrigation resulted in an 8.75% decrease in water use (230). Even though there was an 8.75% decrease in water use, the decrease in water had little effect on the crops output allowing it to grow at the same rate as before.  Issuing a 30% tax rate in New Mexico, however, may not be as effective as it was in California. In New Mexico, the dry arid climate requires more watering. In order to sustains both the crop and water in New Mexico, than the tax rate needs to be in a range of 15 to 30 percent.	In order to begin taxing consumption of water for irrigation, the government needs to set up a system that can regulate and mandate consumption.  To achieve this, Mark Rosegrant, Tingia Zhu and Claudia Ringler recommend “applying financial viability criteria to irrigation agencies, franchising rights to operate publicly constructed irrigation facilities, and strengthening accountability mechanisms"(212). As it stands now, New Mexico farming infrastructure is outdated. The state legislature has set up a New Mexico Acequia Association, but the program only focuses on irrigation rights not irrigation use. Plus, irrigation systems in New Mexico come directly from the river not from irrigation facilities. To accomplish Rosegrant, Zhu and Ringler idea of strengthening irrigation infrastructure, the New Mexican government needs to mandate a new program that controls water consumption through irrigation and has the capabilities to fine farmers who overuse the water supply. Plus, this program needs surface and ground water monitors, and technology advisory services for water users (216). For instance, new wireless watering system can both mandate and release water, eliminating the need of any human activity. This will give the department complete control over water use in farming. Plus the new technology will be based off of how much water the plant needs through soil and temperature, eliminating human error.

In the past decade, there have been new farming methods like drip and sprinkler systems, which according to David Zilberman and Margriet Caswell, have efficiency rate of 80 to 95 percent (228). As mentioned above, the traditional method of farming, or flood irrigation, only yields 65 percent of the water put in. Zilberman and Caswell found in their study in Southern California that sprinkler irrigation saved 8 percent of the water normally wasted in watering. Drip irrigation came in even higher with a whopping 15 percent cutting down water per acre to 2.9 from 3.44 (228). Unfortunately, New Mexicans are old fashioned and tend to keep to the old traditional watering method. The thought of changing a system that is quick and easy and regularly produces the result that is needed is difficult to leave behind. If, however, tax and water regulations mentioned above are mandated, farmers will be forced to adapt. For example, the farmers in southern California during Zilberman and Caswell experiment, in order to save money, majority of them switched over to drip irrigation. Nearly 88 percent of the farmers switched over to drip irrigation when the tax rate on water was 50 percent above the normal price for water. With the tax rate and the more efficient watering conditions, Southern California saved 32 percent of water normally wasted in flood irrigation (226). Transpiration may waste a lot of water, but it is a necessary function of plant. It allows for Carbon dioxide to enter the plant for photosynthesis. Plus, it brings essential minerals from the roots to the leaves. In order to cut down on the loss of water through transpiration, Muillneax, Morrison, and Baker advised in their scientific journal that transpiration can be cut down by modifying the plant with drought resistant plants (640). However, Sandra Postel and her colleagues Daily and Ehrlich found in their article "Human Appropriation of Renewable Fresh Water" that implanting drought resistant genes is still far from a perfect science (785). Genetic modified plants may be the future for farming, but the state of New Mexico does not have time to wait. The state needs solutions that can be activated in a small time period. New Mexican farmers are known for their dry climate farming. They have the perfect environment for growing crops like pecans, green chilies, and beans. In order to farm in a dry climate like New Mexico, farmers need to water often and cannot rely on precipitation. Under our current system, farmers that have water rights can irrigate straight from the river. The first step has to be government involvement either through taxing the farmers or setting up a program that mandates and limits water consumption. With government involvement Rosegrant, Zhu and Ringler claim that this will lead to more productive watering methods.