A new survey sponsored by Ceres shows Americans in drier areas better understand water scarcity threat to agriculture.
Don York featured the news on his radio show, and Ceres representatives interviewed explained how the public is coming around to what growers have always known.
“As a grower – and, farmers will tell you – water is always first and foremost on our minds,” said Matt Ribeiro, who grows almonds in Modesto and works as a Ceres account executive. “For the general public to be aware of potential water scarcity, and be a little more mindful of their water use, like, I think, farmers have always been, is great for both sides.”
“As we saw, a lot of people are worried about (water) scarcity. We need food to eat, so we’ve got to make sure it’s put in the right places,” said Brett Blom, account executive for Ceres Imaging.
Americans in the West and the South say that water scarcity will affect crops before 2030, while awareness lags in the rest of the country, according to a new survey sponsored by Ceres Imaging.
Californians and others on the West Coast are twice as likely as Midwesterners to say that water scarcity will affect crops in the next three years.
Forty-five percent of residents of the U.S. West also say that water scarcity will impact worldwide food supplies by 2030, about ten percentage points higher than Americans from any other region.
While the Midwest and Northeast traditionally see fewer droughts than the West and South, water scarcity is a truly national issue in the United States.
That’s because California grows more than a third of the country's vegetables and two-thirds of the country's fruits and nuts.
In California, growers know that water efficiency is a top priority, and are always seeking highest “crop per drop.” Since 1990, California farmers have increased the use of sprinklers and micro-irrigation systems from 33 percent to 57 percent of total acreage.
Ceres Imaging Works With Farmers to Save Water
Ceres Imaging partners with agriculture companies and family farms alike to increase yields and improve water use efficiency, which growers call “crop per drop.”
For information on how aerial imaging can detect water stress in almonds, see this post.
Growers that use micro-irrigation, the method that usually offers the highest water use efficiency, must deal with clogging and other maintenance problems, which can stress crops and reduce yield. Ceres Imagery helps stop those problems before they cause damage, by detecting thirsty plants from the air.