What's Next for Water?

Greetings from Chicago! I’m about to head north to Wisconsin to cover the World Dairy Expo for our sister site – TheDairySite.com.

Today, I wanted to share a new resource that we are developing at TheCropSite that focuses on our most precious natural resource - Water.

With agriculture responsible for 70 per cent of all freshwater withdrawals, efficient water use that is sustainable is critical to our future. With our global water crisis in mind, we have created this resource to provide you with factual water news, research and information.

I don’t use the word crisis lightly, but this is one situation that I know it’s warranted. I believe that our water situation is not going to improve until we all – and I mean people from all continents - start working together.

We live in a world where 219,000 NEW people need food every day. That is a crisis.

Sixty-six nations cannot produce enough food for their populations. That is a crisis.

How do we change that - research and extension are needed. In sub-Saharan Africa, just 1 percent of its agricultural GDP is spent on research and extension.

Even in a rapidly growing country like China, I have heard many speakers say that one of China’s biggest constraints in yield growth is lack of water.

And climate change is just adding to our water issues.

I’m not claiming to be perfect when it comes to water use, folks. In truth, we water our lawn and I’m actually cringing as I write that. As an industry and as individuals, it's time for us to all look at the things we can do to support efficient water use. And, we need to work on it together.

Click here to learn more about Water – including where the global population is located and where fresh water supplies are located, what we mean by global and economic water scarcity, the types of water and solutions.

We are building this resource, so please check back as we add information. Or if you have useful Water info, please forward it to me at [email protected]

Have a great week!