Sustainable Agriculture: The Fight to Save Water
Harava Rahardjo ’25
Daphne Wong ’26
Our life on Earth cannot sustain without water. Yet, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, merely 3% of the earth’s water supply is freshwater. Due to environmental factors like climate change, this supply is at risk; therefore, it is our job, more than ever, to figure out what we need to do to save it.
Shockingly, agriculture consumes 69% of the entire planet’s freshwater, not leaving much for other uses (World Wildlife, n.d.; USEPA, 2010). While this may seem a lot, it is crucial to recognize that many regions still rely on agriculture as a significant part of their economy, such as India, where agriculture consumes roughly 90% of the nation’s water (India Water, 2010). Since agriculture consumes such a large portion of the Earth’s finite water, farmers are responsible for utilizing water efficiently and sustainably.
Although the stress on the water supply by the agricultural industry is concerning, we cannot simply restrict the amount of water they use. After all, they feed the eight-billion individuals on Earth and provide jobs to an eighth of the population. However, unsustainable agricultural practices are dangerous, driving us toward water scarcity, food insecurity, and famine. Poor land and water management can also exacerbate land degradation, health conditions from “desertification-induced dust storms,” and poverty due to lost agricultural jobs (Rashid, 2018). The agricultural industry must encourage sustainable water management practices. Otherwise, we risk entering a global food supply catastrophe.
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources state that the main goals of sustainable agricultural practices are to create “a healthy environment, economic profitability, and social and economic equity” in food production, to generate humanity’s sustenance without risking the quality of life of our future generations (Feenstra, 2021). With that, there are a plethora of practices that farmers can use. Firstly, improving irrigation systems is crucial to using water more efficiently. A possible solution is an irrigation pipeline, which would replace flood irrigation and result in using significantly less water while maintaining the same or even decreasing the time it takes to water crops. Additionally, practices that focus on avoiding the use of tillage (traditional plowing) have several advantages, including benefiting soil health, decreasing land erosion, and reducing evaporation. Other practices include cover crops (a method to help reduce water evaporation and soil erosion), agroforestry (a practice involving trees and shrubs to provide shade), and integrated pest management (IPM) (a solution to controlling pests while minimizing the utilization of chemical pesticides).
With a collective effort, we will be able to preserve our water supply by implementing sustainable agricultural practices on farms worldwide. Instead of ignoring the values of these practices, we must advocate for ideas that alleviate obstacles against sustainable agriculture.
References
Feenstra, G. (2021, August 3). What is sustainable agriculture? UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.
https://sarep.ucdavis.edu/sustainable-ag
India water. (2010). Worldometers.info. https://www.worldometers.info/water/india-water/
Rashid, M. (2018, September 5). The main consequences of non-sustainable farming. Challenge Advisory.
Union of Concerned Scientists. (2017, April 10). What Is Sustainable Agriculture? Union of Concerned Scientists.
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/what-sustainable-agriculture
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2010). How We Use Water. United States Environmental Protection Agency.
https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water
US Department of Agriculture. (2022, March 22). Doing more with less water. Farmers.gov.
https://www.farmers.gov/blog/doing-more-with-less-water
World Wildlife. (n.d.). Sustainable agriculture. Worldwildlife.org. https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/sustainable-agriculture
