Remove Construction Remove Fertilizer Remove Water Rights
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Should We Be Farming in the Desert?

Civil Eats

This level of agriculture was not possible in the Imperial Valley until the construction of the Alamo Canal , also known as the Imperial Canal, in 1901, which diverted water from the Colorado River. One of the issues that precision agriculture gets to is the overuse of inputs,” Orr says.

Farming 113
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Colorado’s Groundwater Experiment

Civil Eats

But the valley’s irrigation outlook is dire: Water withdrawn by wells exceeds the amount of snowmelt refilling aquifers, and there are more claims to water rights than there is water in streams. But applying the same approach to water is tricky. The expanse is among the most densely irrigated regions on Earth.

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The Fifth National Climate Assessment: Implications for Agriculture

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

Focus on Solutions Although there are clear, negative impacts for agriculture, the agriculture chapter effectively lays out the ways in which agriculture can respond constructively to increasing challenges. The Northern Great Plains chapter notes that current water rights laws in much of the region make adaptation especially difficult.