Water has long been the centre of contention in California, and the conflict has only intensified in the current multi-year drought. Recognizing the need to assist water-insecure regions enhance water use efficiency and conservation, in 2006 the Polaris Institute launched an effort to help California’s agriculture sector – by far the largest source of water withdrawals – organize to minimize its reliance on expensive and insecure water supplies.
In January 2007, the Polaris Institute completed a scoping report, Wetting California’s Appetite: The Water Challenge for Sustainable Agriculture [1], outlining the current opportunities and barriers to long-term agricultural water security.
Following the publication of this report, the Polaris Institute facilitated the establishment of a think tank of agriculture leaders interested in long-term sustainability, including Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association, California Institute for Rural Studies, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Ecological Farming Association, Polaris Institute, and Wild Farm Alliance. Together, we published the white paper Water Stewardship: Ensuring a Secure Future for California Agriculture [2] and then launched the California Agricultural Water Stewardship Initiative (CAWSI) [3].
CAWSI promotes approaches to agricultural water management that support the viability of agriculture, conserve water, and protect ecological integrity in California.
While high-tech approaches to addressing water supply problems have met with a lot of success, a wide range of sustainable on-farm land and water management practices have been largely overlooked for their important contribution to improving water storage and use efficiency, reducing costs for farmers, and enhancing overall soil fertility. CAWSI is working to raise awareness, and build policy, programmatic, and financial support for sound agricultural water management in California.
Visit CAWSI’s Agricultural Water Stewardship Resource Center [3]. to find information and resources on a range of important on-farm water management practices.
Follow CAWSI on Twitter [4] and Facebook [5]