Concerns of climate impact on agriculture irrigation are rising

Google trends has been reporting an alarming trend of increasing interest in both the search terms “irrigation” and “dry seasons” since 2004

These reports coincide with evidences from scientists attributing blame to the climate and weather conditions, causing the weather to alternate between either extremely dry or intense rainfall during wet and dry seasons.

With dry seasons become dryer and the wetter seasons are wetter, struggling farmers can face extreme periods. Extreme events of flooding during the wet season and drought during the wet ones is increasing. These regions include much of India and its neighbors to the east, including Bangladesh and Myanmar, along with parts of inland Brazil, parts of Africa, and northern Australia, according to the study.

A finding from an article in a Clemson University research published in the journal Nature communications states that the increasing evaporating can cause the world is face challenges in irrigation for agriculture, especially in a growing world.

This should set off alarm bells on food security, agriculture produce being threatened by irregular rainfall and extreme temperature.

Heavy reliance on irrigation poses a huge danger to food production. Irrigation in agriculture, unfortunately, is among the biggest users of water. In the USA, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, some 80 percent of water consumption goes into agricultural irrigation while the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that as much as 60 percent of that water used for agriculture is lost through evaporation or runoff.

The published information from the research also suggests that the higher the temperature, the more variation in water availability. According to the publication, the best-case scenario assumes that global temperature stabilizes at 2 degrees over pre-industrial levels and leads to relatively stable water availability during wet and dry seasons.