I first heard of the
Ag Water Conservation Clearinghouse (AWCC) website about 6-7 years ago - just as the pundits at Colorado State University were still conceiving its platform and ultimate function. They had lofty goals then when they announced they'd like to eventually capture and make available all the irrigation literature in the midwest that dealt with irrigation water use conservation and efficient use. I had some idea of the amount of material that was being generated on these topics by Kansas State University alone, so their goal I saw quickly would be quite enormous.
I see today, as I visited the site again, that they have expanded their focus worldwide - now encompassing many different climate regions, technologies, political and legal systems, etc., etc. Impressive!
One thing I noticed on their website was the following, completely unqualified, comment on Ag Water Conservation:
What is Ag Water Conservation?
- Increased crop water use efficiency
- Improved irrigation application efficiency
- Increased capture and utilization of precipitation
- Decreased crop consumptive use
- Increased irrigation water diversion and delivery efficiencies
- Reduced water use through adoption of conservation measures and new technologies for water management
Without any explanation or point of reference on this list, I immediately started running it through my definitions, and quite frankly, not many of them were matching well with my list. Until I came to "Decreased crop consumptive use", that is. I don't know if the authors of this list meant for the answer to be
"any of these" or "all of these", but if I get to vote, I'm voting that all of them
need to occur before you get any real ag water conservation.
Anyway, I'll check back in on the site a while later. Maybe there'll be more information as to this listing. And I wish them all the luck in the world in capturing the universe of ag water conservation materials.
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