'Water is our most precious resource': Alfalfa growers urged to abandon crops amid mega-drought in southwestern US
On an early August morning in California's Imperial Valley, tractors rumble through verdant fields of alfalfa, mowing tall grasses and leaving them to dry in shaggy piles in the scorching sun.
Here, in one of the oldest farming communities in the Colorado River Basin, forage farming is king. One in three cultivated hectares in the valley is devoted to the cultivation of alfalfa, which dries into a protein-rich hay commonly used as livestock feed.
The plant occupies an important place in the desert southwest, not only because it is the largest crop in the region, but also because it is one of the most thirsty - its deep roots suck water into an area scorched by a 22-year drought.
Large-scale alfalfa production during a mega-drought is, in large part, possible because the Imperial Valley is the largest Colorado River Water Rights Controller. Today, with the basin on the brink of the most severe water cuts in history, the alfalfa industry has been thrust into the center of longstanding debates over sustainable water use and the future of farming in the west. edge': a dwindling water supply
The stakes have never been higher. The Colorado River, which provides fresh water to more than 40 million people in seven states and 29 federally recognized tribes in the southwest, as well as northern Mexico, is in rapid decline. Reduced snow cover, drought conditions and higher average temperatures have all reduced river flow in recent decades.
The two largest reservoirs along the river, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are each close to reaching levels so low that the Colorado River could stop flowing altogether, a condition ominously known as a dead pool. "We're about to tip over," said Jack Schmidt, professor and director of the Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University.
On an early August morning in California's Imperial Valley, tractors rumble through verdant fields of alfalfa, mowing tall grasses and leaving them to dry in shaggy piles in the scorching sun.
Here, in one of the oldest farming communities in the Colorado River Basin, forage farming is king. One in three cultivated hectares in the valley is devoted to the cultivation of alfalfa, which dries into a protein-rich hay commonly used as livestock feed.
The plant occupies an important place in the desert southwest, not only because it is the largest crop in the region, but also because it is one of the most thirsty - its deep roots suck water into an area scorched by a 22-year drought.
Large-scale alfalfa production during a mega-drought is, in large part, possible because the Imperial Valley is the largest Colorado River Water Rights Controller. Today, with the basin on the brink of the most severe water cuts in history, the alfalfa industry has been thrust into the center of longstanding debates over sustainable water use and the future of farming in the west. edge': a dwindling water supply
The stakes have never been higher. The Colorado River, which provides fresh water to more than 40 million people in seven states and 29 federally recognized tribes in the southwest, as well as northern Mexico, is in rapid decline. Reduced snow cover, drought conditions and higher average temperatures have all reduced river flow in recent decades.
The two largest reservoirs along the river, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are each close to reaching levels so low that the Colorado River could stop flowing altogether, a condition ominously known as a dead pool. "We're about to tip over," said Jack Schmidt, professor and director of the Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University.
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