LEGISLATIVE UPDATE


Water resiliency drives infrastructure talks as studies address irrigation technologies By John Farner


A


Farmers and ranchers need


a RELIABLE SOURCE OF


WATER — water resiliency is a great way to ensure we are doing all we can to keep our water sources


SUSTAINABLE for all uses.


s Congress finalizes the funding bills for fiscal year 2020, all eyes are on the next session of Congress. With the presidential race


looming, the focus will remain on several top issues, one of which is water infrastructure.


In November, members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee indicated their intent to focus on water resiliency as part of the 2020 Water Resources Development Act. Given the string of destructive weather disasters experienced throughout the United States in 2019, with losses exceeding more than $1 billion, the committee plans to address resiliency through a package addressing both made-made projects as well as natural infrastructure.


The Irrigation Association believes that water infrastructure should prioritize rural water availability and resiliency. While floods ravaged many areas of the United States in 2019, these areas could just as easily see drought in 2020. Farmers and ranchers need a reliable source of water — water resiliency is a great way to ensure we are doing all we can to keep our water sources sustainable for all uses.


REPORTS ADDRESS TECHNOLOGIES


Congress is not the only federal body interested in water use and water policy. Also in November, the Government Accountability Office released a Technology Assessment Report on Irrigated Agriculture. The GAO approached the IA in 2017, notifying the industry that this effort was underway through a request by Congress.


The goal of the report is to look into water-saving opportunities using on-farm irrigation technology adoption. Representatives from the GAO attended the 2017 Irrigation Show and Education Conference and interviewed many professionals from the agriculture irrigation industry. It was the goal of the IA to have as many experts from the irrigation industry provide information to the GAO as possible.


With the report now out, the findings of the GAO are mixed. The report identified two action items for policymakers to consider:


30 Irrigation TODAY | Winter 2020


• Promote the use of more efficient irrigation technologies and practices, such as irrigation scheduling.


• Promote the use of precision agriculture technologies, such as soil moisture sensors and weather stations.


While these action items are in line with the advocacy goals of the IA, the detailed findings of the report solely focus on water conservation and the role irrigation technologies alone play. The report fails to consider the benefits efficient irrigation provides directly to farmers, allowing them to be more productive, while meeting the demands placed by a growing population.


The IA will be following up with the House Agriculture and Natural Resource Committees, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to request that productivity be considered and prioritized, along with conservation, when looking at policies and programs associated with agricultural irrigation. The GAO report can be found at www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-128SP.


Finally, Virginia Tech recently released the Global Agricultural Productivity Report. The GAP report, which is released every year, was originally produced by the Global Harvest Initiative in 2010, with 2019 being the first year that it was developed by Virginia Tech.


The findings in the report state that while global population and incomes are growing slower than they did at the turn of the century, 30 years from now the world’s farmers, ranchers, fishers and foresters will need to sustainably produce food and agricultural products for nearly 10 billion people. Irrigation expansion is highlighted as a key component to the future sustainability of agricultural production in the report. The GAP report can be found at https:// globalagriculturalproductivity.org.


John Farner   director for the National Ground Water Association.


irrigationtoday.org


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