Protecting the Lifeline: The future of irrigation from the Ogallala Aquifer

Over the past 10 years, Texas farmers, especially those in the Panhandle Region have felt the long lasting impacts of drought. Furthermore, "According to researchers from Stanford University, West Texas A&M University, and others, up to 40% of Ogallala will be unable to support irrigated crop production within the next 80 years" (Keenan, 2023).

This will be disastrous to Panhandle Farmers as according to one farmer, nearly 80% of his crops are irrigated through this water supply. (Huguley,2021) Drought is no new issue to our region, it has destroyed our economy, communities, and livelihood. Now though, with the world depending on the panhandle more and more, this becomes at the forefront of conversations locally and nationally. Our region supplies more than a third of the nation's cotton, 88% of beef in Texas (Texas Farm Bureau), More than 75% of dairy in Texas (Powell, 2023), along with other production agriculture products like corn, wheat, lamb, and poultry. Irrigation from the aquifer supplies crop fields, forage fields, and millions of livestock animals with water. Without the aquifer, the clothes on our backs and food on our tables would disappear, not just in our region, state, or nation but world wide. We have already seem towns like Umbarger disappear due to draught drying up the Buffalo Lake.

Luckily, panhandle farmers have chosen to put the future of agriculture on to their backs, just as they have multiple times before. The Plains farmers have turned to regenerative farming and similar systems as advised by the World Economic Forum (Daniel & Lovett, 2019). Making leaps and bounds for safer and more responsible irrigation from the aquifer that enables the region to supply nearly a third of Us commodities of crop and livestock. Some farmers have resorted to replacing the large expanses of cotton and corn that covered the never ending landscape to native grasses. The native grasses are being used for pasture land, increasing the regions beef cattle production. Furthermore, the native grasses are naturally resilient to the droughts that create a laundry-list of problems, from the dust bowl to the most recent extreme drought in 2022, and are naturally irrigated by the little rainfall natural to our region. Replanting native grasses holds the soil into place, making farmers hopeful that the dust bowl will not repeat itself. (PBS NewsHour, 2021) Although the issue of soil stewardship and sustainable water is constantly hanging over our region's head, due to the work of the Texas A&M Agri-Life research and thousands of farmers choosing a better future the Texas panhandle has a definite spot in the future of agriculture. The Texas Panhandle is the hotbed of United State's Agriculture and will continue to feed the world, and as we look for sustainable water supplies, so will the irrigation to make sure our region remains at the forefront of the nation.

Citations:

Keenan, C. (2023, July 26). The Ogallala Aquifer: When will the wells run dry? What then? KAMR - MyHighPlains.com; KAMR - MyHighPlains.com. https://www.myhighplains.com/water-and-drought-on-the-high-plains/the-ogallala-aquifer-when-will-the-wells-run-dry-what-then/#:~:text=According%20to%20researchers%20from%20Stanford,within%20the%20next%2050%20years.

Huguley, S. E. (2021, April 14). Texas cotton growers discuss soil health, management practices. Farmprogress.com. https://www.farmprogress.com/cotton/texas-cotton-growers-discuss-soil-health-management-practices

Tomascik, J. (2017, July 25). Report: More cattle in Texas, U.S. - Texas Farm Bureau. Texas Farm Bureau. https://texasfarmbureau.org/report-cattle-texas-u-s/

‌Powell, D. (2023, March 20). Population growth helping dairy industry’s expansion. KVII; KVII. https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/population-growth-helping-dairy-industrys-expansion-mike-schouten-mission-dairy-production-texas-panhandle-juan-pineiro-texas-am-agrilife-united-states-department-of-agriculture-usda-lubbock-texas

Daniel, A., & Lovett, T. (2019, December 20). How regenerative agroforestry could solve the climate crisis. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/12/what-is-agroforestry-climate-change/

Daniel, A., & Lovett, T. (2019, December 20). How regenerative agroforestry could solve the climate crisis. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/12/what-is-agroforestry-climate-change/

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