What happens to the water that farmers use?

Question

When farmers use water for the crops, are we to conserve water on their behalf?

Answer 1

farmers use about 75% of all the aviable water ,sometimes stealing from the cities so that they can grow food

the water they use drains away into the soil,and returns to underground water supplies and flows
not all farmers are the same
and the New (also very old )philosyphies preach to use water efeciently ,traditional farmers are very waste full,
here is a story on water efficiency

EFFICIENT WATER USE

IN THE HOUSE
one can connect the sink straight to the toilet sistern and so use the water twice ,first to have a shave and then to flush the toilet
also if you bend the ball valve you can regulate the level of the sistern

and always have your grey water and black water seperate
so that the sink and shower water goes directly into the garden saving on irregation and at the same time ,making the sewage smaller and easier to deal with ,this also goes and iregates the garden but via a sitern of two compartments and a french drain ,on which you plant trees,

ON THE LAND
economic systems of irregation like drip irregation
and design using a lot of stone walls ,that condense water in the night
and planting leafy plants for the same purpose
building wind breaks ,to counter act the drying effects of the wind and farm towards agro forestal ,using as many trees as posible to limit evaporation .using shade nets before we have tree cover

and use MULCH

by cutting down the weeds before they produce seeds and leave them where they fall,they will cover the ground and put even more organic matter on top,you can use saw dust,leaves green or dry,and when you plant make a little space and plant in the mulch.this is the easiest quickest and by far most benificial way(for the quality of you soil)to prepare the land for planting

to prevent weeds from coming all you have to do it turn out the lights,you can even use cardboard or black plastic(this is good for strawberries because they will rot if they touch humid ground,and the bugs can get to them).

mulch is the same principal as compost but it includes the whole garden surface
the top part of the soil where the topsoil is being produced houses a world or microbiotic life.

Mulch is organic material green or dry that covers the ground,the thicker the better the composting process will turn it in to black topsoil

the humidity is preserved underneath and promotes the devellopment of worms(their exists no better compost than their excrements)and a variety of micro biotic life which together with the mulch produce more topsoil.

the mulch also keeps the ground temperature even and guards against the impact of the rain ,which would other wise brings salt to the surfave if on unprotected land

Mulch also prevents the soil from drying out because of the sun and,


WATERHARVESTING

the natural way of nature is to evaporate moisture for clouds and this gets blown to places with less water any way ,what obstruct the clouds from getting to deserts ,tend to be mountains that are in the way,
but generally speaking ,the normal weather patterns spread rain evenly over the planet to balance out the temperatures and humidity.

As far as catching rain is concerned ,we do this all the time ,and have done so already since Babylonian times,and is a part of the more advanced Agriculture,that existed with the Egyptians,Central ,and south American indigenous peoples,and many others ,today we call this water harvesting.

In Permaculture the rule is to harvest water to the point of Zero runoff.
this means that all of the rain that falls on an area is absorbed by the terrain and not a drop leaves it.

by building dams,ponds or swales, with interconecting ditches,
if there are enough of these ;the places ,where before the rain water ran over the ground into the rivers and on to the sea ,(in a matter of hours or days),It now runs into absorbant dams or swales and saturates the ground and eventually reaches subteranean water deposits ,taking many months to do so.
Or it fills up ponds that can be used for Aquaculture.
And so a convex situation that repels water is transformed in a concave ,absorbant one and turning the area in to a sponge.

in Spain and Portugal ,which still display many examples of the conquering Moorish influence,One can find many remnants of Waterharvesting,such as aquaducts and tanks underneath the patios ,which collect the rain water from the roofs ,to be used in dryer times.

in Arabia ,on a large scale ,land has been shaped to catch and lead,rain water into sandy areas or to agricultural lands.sand is almost as good as dams because it absorbs water and holds it.

to find out more about Water harvesting I recomend:
the designers manual by Bil Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars.
and is the best all round book you can get.(tagiari publishing, [e-mail])


some other writers that are on the internet are
david Holmgren
Larry Santoyo
Kirk Hanson

Masanobu Fukuaka has written ,
One-Straw Revolution
The Road Back to Nature
The Natural Way of Farming
http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu...

Simon Henderson
and Bill Molisson.

a representitive of the concept in USA is
Dan Hemenway at [e-mail]
[e-mail]
http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames....
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalo... Source(s) I am a permaculture consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government of Guerrero in Mexico


http://spaces.msn.com/byderule

Answer 2

It does have an effect on surrounding environments, because most of it escapes as runoff (only the portion needed for groundwater recharge gets soaked back into the ground).

If the farmer uses peesticides on the crops, then pesticide-infused water runs off into local streams, lakes, rivers and into the groundwater.

With regards to conserving water on their behalf, there is really no point. Agricultural water use FAR exceeds municipal (or an urban citizen's daily) water use, and even if every citizen made an effort to conserve water to offset agricultural waste, it would make barely any difference.

In Australia (for example), agricultural water use exceeds municipal water use by a ratio of approximately 40:1; flushing the toilet less can hardly make a difference here.

Answer 3

What doesn't get absorbed by the plants or evaporate soaks through the ground back into the water table and back into a larger body of water somewhere (creek, stream, river...etc.) In most cases around here farmers that use large scale irrigation systems pump that water from a large source nearby (like a creek or river) with an irrigation pump. It really has no impact on local urban and rural water levels because it is not the water that is being pumped for the treatment plants.