Irrigation consists of artificially bringing water to cultivated crops to increase their yield. Irrigation can compensate for a lack of rainwater, but necessitates the removal of groundwater, and water from rivers and lakes. Not all arable land is irrigated: only 17% was in 2003, but this land could provide up to 40% of the world’s harvest. (1)Water as a Resource Water is a renewable resource: the amount present on Earth is virtually constant. At any one time, water is flowing in the ocean, evaporating, and falling again over the earth. However, certain water stores, in particular aquifers (beds of water-bearing rock), take somewhere on a timescale of thousands of years to replenish. On a human timescale, they could therefore be depleted before they can regenerate, and come to be missed. Furthermore, only 2.5% of total water reserves are fresh water. Fresh water from watercourses and subterranean groundwater for...
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Gene breakthrough to help Japanese farmers hit by tsunami
FAO
The vulnerability of rain-dependent food production systems and the people who depend on them has been brought into stark relief...
The very existence of native people depends on them adapting to their natural environment. Today, these ancestral practices are being brought back so that we can adapt better to climate...
The town of Albi has installed which are more eco-friendly. These produce good quality white light which...
Arable land Desertification risks Water consumption
