Editor's note: Nich Toma is a graduating senior at Los Alamos High School, works in the biology division of Los Alamos National Labs and will be attending Iowa State in the fall majoring in Biochemistry.
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 the drought that the southwest has been experiencing for the past ten years. With these two together, New Mexico's already limited water supply has taken a turn for the worse. The situation is now threatening New Mexico's economic and environmental sustainability.
Economic sustainability, as described by Eric Zencey, is "the point at which a less-developed economy no longer needs infusions of capital or aid in order to generate wealth". With the loss of water, industry, agriculture and many other aspects of the New Mexico economy would be lost, obliterating the states chance of obtaining economic sustainability. In order to obtain environmental sustainability, on the other hand, Zencey says an ecosystem "cannot destroy the environmental preconditions for its own existence". The environmental sustainability has an even greater threat if we continue to lose our rivers and lakes. Without the rivers and lakes in New Mexico, important niches and ecosystems will be destroyed beyond repair.
As threatening as the State’s situation may sound, New Mexico 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 research, the old fashioned method of flood irrigation only yields 65 percent of water put in. That means we are losing 35 percent of our irrigation to water runoff. To make matters worse, this figure does not even include the 90 percent of the water required by terrestrial plants that is lost through transpiration. As scary as this may sound, there are options for conserving water. In order to succeed, the State of New Mexico needs 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, New Mexico Water Science Center estimates that Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico rank 48, 49, and 50 in percent of water per square foot. They also concluded that as a state, we use roughly 3,256.85 million gallons of water per day. Of the 3,256.85 million gallons of water per day, New Mexico water Science Center predicts that 1710 million gallons are used on surface irrigation. That is 53 percent of our water use a day that goes to our plants through surface irrigation. Of this 1710 million gallons used in flood irrigation, 1001 million gallons are wasted through run off leaving only 709 million gallons of water for the plant. Then measure how much of the 709 million gallons actually yield a biochemical function for the crop, using the Penman & Schofield ratio of 301 million gallons are than transpired, leaving only 408 million gallons to maintain homeostasis at both the plant and cellular level. With so much water wasted in agriculture, it is questionable why we continue to use such inefficient methods.
The State of 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". Based off the irrigation process, one can imagine the inefficiency. Especially when the amount of water to grow a healthy metric ton of beans is about 1480 meters³ of water while the average green bean is only 580 meters³ of water.
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. 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 the farmer money and time that many do not have in these tough economic conditions.
The State of New Mexico cannot ban farming. In the United States, New Mexico is in the top ten states in food output. Also, its dry environment is perfect for growing 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. Let's not forget the culture that runs through New Mexico farming. The state has been built around using the land and its water for food for thousands of years. If the state simply eliminated farming, a huge chunk 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 implemented in order to sustain future farming.
Many other states and countries have had great success in their new water policies and technology. These ideas helped states like California drastically cut back on the amount of water they used. California 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. Lastly, the advancement in technology is leading us to drought resistant plants that can survive off 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 can motivate farmers to conserve water. Currently, the law in New Mexico for using water to irrigate your land, according to the New Mexico Acequia Association, "is owning land with a man made diversion from a stream and beneficial use associated with the irrigation." In other words, as long as a farmer owns the right to irrigate, then they can use as much as they need. An article by David Zilberman and Margriet Caswell suggests that "a simple tax can cut down on the use of water"; 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. 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 sustain both the crop and water in New Mexico, than the tax rate needs to be in the range of 15 to 30 percent. To begin taxing consumption of water for irrigation, the government needs to set up a system that can regulate and mandate consumption. To achieve state wide irrigation control system, Mark Rosegrant, Tingju Zhu and Claudia Ringler recommend, in their article, "applying financial viability criteria to irrigation agencies, franchising rights to operate publicly constructed irrigation facilities, and strengthening accountability mechanisms". 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. Irrigation systems in New Mexico come directly from the river not from irrigation facilities. To strengthen the irrigation infrastructure, the New Mexican government needs to mandate a new program that controls water consumption through irrigation with the capabilities to fine farmers who overuse the water supply. The state program needs surface and ground water monitors, and technology advisory services for water users. New wireless watering systems can both mandate and release water, eliminating the need of any human activity. The new watering systems would give the department complete control over water use in farming. New technology would be based off of how much water the plant needs through soil temperature, eliminating human error.
In the past decade, there have been new farming methods like drip and sprinkler systems, which have efficiency rate of 80 to 95 percent. 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 the 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.
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, many of the farmers in southern California during the Zilberman and Caswell experiment, in order to save money, 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 wasted in flood irrigation.
Transpiration may waste a lot of water, but it is a necessary function of the plant. Muillneax, Morrison, and Baker advised in their scientific journal that transpiration can be cut down by modifying the plant into drought resistance. However, implementing drought resistant genes is still far from a perfect science. Genetically modified plants may be the future for farming, but the state of New Mexico does not have to wait. The State needs solutions that can be activated in a small time period. In the meantime, the government can fund the national labs in finding an efficient drought resistant plant.
New Mexican farmers are known for their dry climate farming. They have the perfect environment for growing crops like pecans, green chili, 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 holding water rights can irrigate straight from the river. The first step into conserving water is government involvement through taxing farmers or setting up a program that mandates and limits water consumption. As mentioned before, the tax rate on the amount of water used on irrigation should be between 15 and 30 percent or enough to reach equilibrium with plant growth and water conservation. To mandate the process, New Mexico needs to update its infrastructure with a central irrigation plant that can supply and monitor the amount of water used by each farmer. After setting up a system that can mandate and ensure farmers are following the water limits, New Mexico’s next step is to educate farmers on the benefits of more efficient water methods like drip irrigation and sprinkler systems. With all of these ideas implemented, New Mexico will be environmentally and economically sustainable for generations to come.
Responses to “Farming and water in New Mexico”