As drought risks continue to challenge farmers in the Southwest — where surface water supplies are at their lowest level in at least the past 1,200 years, exacerbating rapid decline in groundwater reserves — researchers are digging for new and better water conservation solutions.
The latest strategy being examined is the potential of fallowing — leaving cultivated land unused for a set period — to save water in agricultural operations. To advance this research, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research awarded a $970,931 grant to New Mexico State University to work with farmers and water managers to evaluate where and when leaving cultivated land unused is an effective water-saving practice, according to a news release.
The Elephant Butte Irrigation District, NMSU, the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute and the Thornburg Foundation matched research funding, bringing the total to $1,941,862, according to the release.
“Capitalizing on the technical expertise of farmers and water district managers is essential to driving applied research and credibly informing field operations,” Kathy Boomer, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research scientific program director, said in the release.
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Growers have used fallowing for millennia to manage crops and soils; however, it can also damage agricultural systems if implemented without thoughtful planning. Successful fallowing strategies rely on understanding how crop systems respond to field management and natural changes in soil water content.
Leveraging the experience and knowledge of growers, water managers and hydrologists could improve the understanding of these connections and create a more holistic approach to managing agricultural land management in arid climates.
“While this interdisciplinary research will support water resource management in southern New Mexico, the collaboration process they develop will provide a vital example of how to advance more effective stakeholder-engaged management plans in agricultural watersheds worldwide,” Boomer said in the release.
NMSU researchers are working to develop a hydrologic-agricultural-economic model that evaluates alternative fallowing strategies. The researchers will integrate the hydrologic modeling with remote sensing data, field measurements and socioeconomic information. This integrated data will inform where fallowing can optimize targeted benefits and estimate the cumulative benefits of fallowed fields within the project area.
The researchers will focus on the Mesilla-Rincon Valley in southern New Mexico, where the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission is currently implementing a pilot program to reduce groundwater pumping through fallowing, according to the release.
Results from this research will inform how much and where fallowing can mitigate water shortage concerns in arid regions. The research team plans to make this project scalable and replicable to other regions by developing best practices for future collaborations, according to the release.
