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Why a blog?
The Farming Futures blog is for farmers, land managers and their advisers to discuss and debate the issue of climate change and sustainability in agriculture.
We’re interested in how you think we can produce more food for a growing population in the context of Government targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, hotter, drier summers, higher energy and input prices, and the increased consumer interest in 'low carbon' food.
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Blogs marked with our weak signals logo explore ideas, trends, technologies or behaviour changes that are as yet unrecognised by the mainstream farming industry. They might have a big impact on future farm practices or they might disappear. They help us to challenge assumptions about the future, navigate risk and seize new opportunities. If you spot a weak signal, get in touch and we'll get it on the site.
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Could trade be the answer to the water crunch?
In the North West of England a hosepipe ban is currently looming and farmers are facing restricted abstraction licenses. But despite the dry conditions water is not yet in such short supply elsewhere because of groundwater reserves. Could water trading be the answer to our water distribution problems?
Water trading is the buying and selling of access to water between areas of plenty and areas of shortfall and schemes already exist in countries like South Africa and Australia, where balancing supply has always been important. A study on a hypothetical trading system in Canada revealed that 1.468 million m3 of water – 15% – could be saved through efficiencies, while ensuring equal distribution of the nation’s reserves.
As climate change hits, water is likely to be one of the issues to bite first, particularly in agriculture. Should we learn from studies such as this one and start trading access to water in the UK?
Weak signals posts explore ideas, trends, technologies or behaviour changes that are as yet unrecognised by the mainstream farming industry. They might have a big impact on future farm practices or they might disappear. They help us to challenge assumptions about the future, navigate risk and seize new opportunities. If you spot a weak signal, get in touch and we'll get it on the site.
saving the rain we get
You talk about water efficiencies. You need to think about saving the water thrown away on arrival. We need to think creatively of increasing percolation to the aquifers, especially of winter rains drained from clay soils. Inland of the Suffolk coast the clay sits above sandy valleys which dry in summer and could be used to hold water while it percolates to the aquifer.
Ground water “reserves” have a notorious habit of diminishing where they are used overseas.
Summer deluges and surface runoff are harder to handle, but even here dealing with the water before it aggregates would simplify matters.
Your sort of trading would be popular with water companies and big engineering companies. This small scale approach could benefit farmers and wildlife.
I live on the sandy coastal area of Suffolk and you don’t get much drier. We still have groundwater reserves in East Anglia after a wet year last year, but in the 1990s we had hosepipe bans, so I guess it is only a matter of time.
Carrots, onions and new potatoes are a profitable irrigated crops and we do have the fallback of creating heath land nature reserves and tourism.
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