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| Irrigation pump. Image credit Wikimedia Commons. |
Approximately 71%
of UK land (17.4 million hectares) is used for agriculture - with 9.3
million hectares (70%) of land in England used for such operations. The
benefits of this land use are well-known - providing close to 50% of the UK’s
food consumption. Irrigated agriculture
forms an important fulcrum within this sector, as well as contributing
extensively to the rural economy. In eastern England alone, it is estimated
that 50,000
jobs depend upon irrigated agriculture – with the sector reported to
contribute close to £3 billion annually to the region’s economy.
It is estimated that only 1-2% of the water abstracted from
rivers and groundwater in England is consumed by irrigation. When compared to
the figures from other nations, this use of water by agriculture is relatively
low. In the USA,
agricultural operations account for approximately 80-90% of national
consumptive water use. In Australia, water
usage by irrigation over 2013/14 totalled 10,730 gigalitres (Gl) – 92% of the
total agricultural water usage in that period (11,561 Gl).
However, the median
prediction of nine forecasts of future demand in the UK’s agricultural
sector has projected a 101% increase in demand between today and 2050. In this
country, irrigation’s water usage is often concentrated during the driest
periods and in the catchments where resources are at their most constrained. Agriculture
uses the most water in the regions where water stress is most obvious: such as
East Anglia. The result is that, in some dry summers, agricultural irrigation
may become the largest abstractor of water in these vulnerable catchments.
With climate change creating a degree of uncertainty
surrounding future water availability across the country, it has become a
necessity for policy and research to explore which routes can provide the
greatest efficiency gains for agricultural resilience. A 2015
survey by the National Farmers Union found that many farmers lack confidence in
securing long term access to water for production - with only a third of those
surveyed feeling confident about water availability in five years’ time. In
light of this decreasing availability, the need to reduce water demand within
this sector has never been more apparent.
Evidence from research and the agricultural practice across
the globe provides us with a number of possible routes. Improved
on-farm management practice, the use of trickle irrigation,
the use of treated
wastewater for irrigation and the building of reservoirs point to a
potential reduction in water usage.
Yet, something stands in the way of the implementation of
these schemes and policies that support them: People. The adoption of new
practices tends to be determined by a number of social factors – depending on
the farm and the farmer. As farmers are the agents within this change, it is
important to understand the characteristics that often guide their
decision-making process and actions in a socio-ecological context.
Let’s remember, there is no such thing as your ‘average
farmer’. Homogeneity is not a word that British agriculture is particularly
aware of. As a result, efforts to increase water use efficiency need to understand
how certain characteristics influence the potential for action. Wheeler
et al. have found a number of characteristics that can influence adaptation
strategies. For example, a farmer with a greater belief in the presence of
climate change is more likely to adopt mitigating or adaptive measures. Importantly,
this can also be linked to more-demographic factors. As Islam
et al. have argued, risk scepticism can be the result of a number of
factors (such as: age, economic status, education, environmental and economic
values) and that these can be linked to the birth cohort
effect.
This is not to say that all farmers of a certain age are
climate-sceptics but it does point to an important understanding of demography
as a factor in the adoption of innovative measures. Wheeler et al. went on to
cite variables of environment values, commercial orientation, perceptions of
risk and the presence of an identified farm successor as potentially directing
change in practice . Research by Stephenson has shown that
farmers who adopt new technologies tend to be younger and more educated, have
higher incomes, larger farm operations and are more engaged with primary
sources of information.
Yet, there is one social pressure that future policy must
take into account – friendly, neighbourly competition. Keeping up with the
Joneses. Not wanting Farmer Giles down the lane knowing that you overuse water
in an increasingly water-scarce future. This can be harnessed within a system
of benchmarking. Benchmarking
involves the publication of individual farm’s water use, irrigation
characteristics and efficiency and farming practice. Although data is supplied
anonymously, individual farmers will be able to see how they measure up against
their neighbours, competitors and others elsewhere.
Benchmarking is used in other
agricultural sub-sectors. A 2010
survey found that 24% of farmers from different sectors used benchmarking
in their management processes. This is particularly evident in the dairy
sector, where both commercial and public organisations use the methods as a way
to understand individual farm performance – an important example of this would
be DairyCo’s Milkbench+
initiative. In 2004,
over 950,000 hectares of irrigated land in Australia, 385,000 hectares in China
and 330, 000 hectares in Mexico were subjected to benchmarking processes as a
mean to gauge their environmental, operational and financial characteristics.
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This blog is written by Cabot Institute member Ed Atkins, a PhD student at the University of Bristol who studies water scarcity and environmental conflict. |
Ed Atkins
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Read part 1 of this blog series Why is there a difficult absence of water demand forecasting in the UK?