Is the agriculture industry doing enough to conserve water during Utah's drought?

The Utah state government is offering grants to encourage and enable farmers to invest in water-saving technology amid a severe drought. A farmer who wants to install a better irrigation system, like drip irrigation, will pay for half of the upgrade and the state will pay for the other half.

A government scheme in Pakistan involves the construction of water-harvesting dams in areas that experience droughts, which allows farmers in the region to use the irrigation water from the dams for their crops. One farmer is growing onions and wheat and because of the access to water, his income has increased more than 60 percent. There are concerns about how helpful the water from the dams will ultimately be in the arid region, but there are plans to build more dams in the next few years.

Colorado is only now recovering from a 16-year long drought that resulted in the aquifer irrigation system becoming increasingly dry. Until the farmers decided to tax themselves for water consumption, realizing that saving water now and taxing themselves would protect their farms and livelihood in the long run.

Farmers in southeast Utah grow wheat and other select grains without irrigation, a technique called dryland farming. Relying only on rainwater eases water pressure amid droughts.

Farmers and researchers in Utah are growing Kernza, a perennial grain that requires very little water and improves soil health, in hopes of helping the local agricultural industry adapt to record-breaking heat and droughts.

Farmers in Uttar Pradesh, India, are using an age-old farming practice known as flood recession farming, which involves planting crops in floodplains when water recedes, to grow crops with less water during droughts.

Farmers in Utah are installing drip irrigation technology to reduce their water use amid a drought by watering crops directly at the root. The technology, created by the Tel Aviv-based agritech company Netafim, can be tailored to meet the needs of different crops.

The nonprofit Group to Promote Education and Sustainable Development teaches women in drought-ridden Indigenous communities across Mexico to use ancestral methods of irrigation and grow drought-resilient medicinal plants. The four-year training program also aims to address gender disparity through empowerment. Participants are encouraged to set up savings funds to increase their financial independence and attend group therapy sessions, among other activities.

Farmers in Mexico are keeping a 1,000-year-old tradition alive to produce reliable yields of healthy crops despite facing historic droughts. They're using chinampas, which are man-made “floating gardens” created by placing soil from the lake on top of reeds and grasses.

Farmers in Ndiob, Senegal, have returned to an ancient technique called zaï to combat drought, use less fertilizer, and increase their yields. Zaï involves drilling holes in the soil so rainwater can fill them and soak into the land instead of running off.