Thanks for posting this article, Mike. It's important and usually I would give a posting like this a thumbs up, but it sure is hard to 'like' the sobering reality of a water-scarce future. It is real. It is here. Now we learn to pivot toward the challenges, because "business as usual" in modern agriculture won't save our soil, our food, and our communities from drier, hotter times. But as the article states, we can employ constructive responses like mulching, changing crop rotations, going to no-till -- and there are so many other options.

If people are looking for a bevy of potential solutions for conserving and making the most of whatever water is available, have a look at The Drought Resilient Farm by Dale Strickler. Thank you, Mike, for clueing me into this book which shares so many ideas for ways we can create abundant agriculture even in times of water scarcity.
 
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification has released their Drought Toolbox which contains a lot of useful information for producers living through a drought right now. There are three modules, Monitoring and Early Warning (great if drought effects haven’t really been felt yet), Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (essential to prepare for against the next drought), and Risk Mitigation Measures (crucial for protecting ourselves now and in the future). It even includes an amazing decision tree for producers or policy makers that help identify specific actions one can take with high/low drought risk, local/national scales, time of expected return on investment (ROI), by climate type, and by economic sector (livestock, forestry, transit etc.) One can even get help on specific actions to take by soil type. These resources have been made available because the world at large is recognizing that without soil, humanity cannot survive. We must do everything in our power to catch and hold more water in our soil, regenerate our land, and prepare for a water scarce future.
Read more on the https://soilforwater.org/un-drought-toolbox-tools-for-producers-land-managers-and-scientists/

To read and/or download the Drought Toolbox, visit https://www.unccd.int/land-and-life/drought/toolbox. Don’t forget to let the Soil for Water team know how we can best support you in your efforts to try new regenerative practices on your farm. If you’re a Soil for Water Network member, you can get free professional support from a Soil for Water team member by posting your questions here on the forum.soilforwater.org. Hit reply, or start a new thread, and let us know what you’re trying.
 

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