Well Into the Future

A federally-funded water conservation program, the System Conservation Pilot Program, is paying farmers in the Upper Colorado River Basin to not use the river’s water during the irrigation season. Leaving their fields dry for the program can earn them more money than they would get from growing crops.

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.

Solar-powered irrigation allows women in Gella to farm during the dry season, enabling multiple harvests per year that provide food security, income, and social connection while increasing women's economic agency in a post-conflict community.

An AI-powered underwater sensor system developed by KMFRI and ShoShin Innovation Hub detects dangerous drops in dissolved oxygen in Lake Victoria and sends SMS alerts to fish farmers. This enabled them to move their cages in time and successfully averting a mass fish kill in February 2026 that would have threatened hundreds of tilapia cages at Dunga Beach.

Arvin-Edison Water Storage District has spent decades diverting imported river water into spreading ponds to recharge its aquifer for later pumping, a strategy credited with helping halt past groundwater declines and raise levels over time.

El Paso pecan farmers are implementing innovative water conservation techniques—including cover crops, polymer soil treatments, and improved tillage practices—that are showing promising results in reducing water usage and salt buildup, with cover crops alone reducing weed populations by 80-90% while creating cooler, more moisture-retentive soil conditions that help orchards survive in increasingly drought-prone conditions.

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 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.