Big ideas are formulating in agriculture on how to better manage and reinvigorate water supplies in the face of climate change. None of them can be accomplished alone—without collaboration among farmers, ranchers, foresters, crop breeders, agricultural technology companies, and other value chain partners.
Solutions from the Land will bring together water stakeholders and advance farmer-centered water solutions during an event today at 12:30 p.m. Eastern in the Nature Hub of the United Nations 2023 Water Conference. The event, “Sustainable Agricultural Water Use Offers Solutions: Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration to Advance Shared SDGs,” will interject agricultural expertise and showcase land-based solutions as international, UN leaders set out to develop a Water Action Agenda.
Land-based water solutions come in the form of precision technologies, improved institutional and infrastructural capacity, production practices, and crop breeding. They should be context-specific and circular in nature, with higher efficiencies and waste reduction achieved through the use and reuse of resources while producing food, fiber, feed and fuel.
Panelist speakers will include Jocelyn Anderson, an SfL farmer envoy who is the fourth generation on her family’s farm in Northern California, where they grow almonds and walnuts. Anderson’s family monitors moisture in their orchard soils using probes at 3, 6, 9 and 12 feet and in the trees by testing leaves for water stress. They set their irrigation to release just the right amount of water when and where it’s needed, targeted to the row.
Other speakers include representatives from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Cargill, Nutrien, The Nature Conservancy, Netafim and Ducks Unlimited, all of whom are working on tools, technologies and programs to further support agricultural producers across the globe in reducing water consumption while boosting productivity.
Dr. Jerry Hatfield, recently retired director for the USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment and a SfL senior adviser, will be the keynote speaker for the event. He will moderate the panel discussion with insight on land-based water management opportunities and needs.
Organizing event partners include Solutions from the Land, Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition, Cargill, ComNet Mekong, Ducks Unlimited, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, General Mills, Global Water Partnership, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Irrigation Association, Netafim, Nutrien, The Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, The Nature Conservancy, Water Policy Group and World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
For More Information
- Learn more about Solutions from the Land’s perspectives on water in “Accelerated Water-Soil Dynamics Are the Signature of a Changing Climate: Global Farmers Adapt to Deliver Integrated SDG Outcomes.”
- Find more information about the event in the SfL blog.
For additional information, contact Ernie Shea, president of Solutions from the Land, at 410-952-0123 or eshea@solutionsfromtheland.org
