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Agricultural Water Stewardship Agricultural Water Stewardship Recommendations to Optimize Outcomes for Specialty Crop Growers and the Public in California California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply June 2011 About the California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply The California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply is a consensus-based forum to uncover obstacles, identify solutions, and take action to enhance water security for agriculture,i the public and the environment. Participants share a dedication to a healthy and balanced future for California and each bring deep experience on issues at the intersection of water supply and agriculture to the table. The Roundtable membership represents a broad and balanced cross-section of stakeholders including, but not limited to, representatives from specialty crop agriculture, water supply management, government, fish and wildlife, natural resources, stewardship, environmental justice, rural economic development, and academia. Recognizing that polarized debates on water in California often end at impasse, the Roundtable first came together in the summer of 2010 with the conviction that a creative and frank “off-the-record” dialogue could help draw out the wisdom and ideas needed to develop strong new pathways forward for water management in California. Roundtable members have found significant common ground even amidst ongoing water debates. Roundtable members identified agricultural water stewardship as a key area of importance for sound long-term water management. The group held a series of meetings to build a common understanding of agricultural water use, develop a unified set of principles that underlie long-term solutions, and create recommendations for decision-makers and the public on balanced solutions to tough agricultural water issues. This report is the product of those efforts. The following individuals participated in the California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply dialogue on agricultural water stewardship and contributed to this report: CRWFS Members* Thad Bettner, Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District Mary Ann King, Trout Unlimited Juliet Christian-Smith, Pacific Institute Danny Merkley, California Farm Bureau Federation Martha Davis, Inland Empire Utilities Agency David Orth, Kings River Conservation District Brock Dolman, Occidental Arts & Ecology Center WATER Jovita Pajarillo, US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9 Institute Mark Rentz, Association of California Water Agencies Allan Fulton, UC Cooperative Extension Bruce Rominger, Rominger West Winery Corny Gallagher, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Dave Runsten, Community Alliance with Family Farmers Sarge Green, California Water Institute Steve Shaffer, Environmental Consulting for Agriculture Kamyar Guivetchi, Department of Water Resources Fran Spivy-Weber, California State Water Resources Control Martha Guzman Aceves, California Rural Legal Assistance Board Foundation Tom Tomich, UC Davis Sustainability Institute Glenda Humiston, USDA Rural Development Casey Walsh Cady, California Department of Food and Jacob Katz, UC Davis, Dept. of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Agriculture Biology Diana Westmoreland Pedrozo, Agricultural Advocate Luana Kiger, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Leo Winternitz, The Nature Conservancy We are grateful for the support of the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, administered by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and Roots of Change in making the work of the Roundtable possible. We would also like to thank Louise Jackson, UC Davis Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, and Charles Burt, Cal Poly Irrigation Training and Research Center, for their contributions to this work. *The opinions and recommendations made by CRWFS do not necessarily reflect those of the organizations with which members are affiliated. © California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply, a project of Ag Innovations Network. For more information, please visit http://www.aginnovations.org/roundtables/crwfs. Cover photo ©iStockphoto.com/tntemerson. i Throughout this report, the term “agriculture” refers exclusively to production of specialty crops in California. Water Stewardship A Lens for Sound Water Policy and Management “Moving water is the most complex and increase economic risks for growers. Simply artful thing we do as farmers.” reducing agricultural water applications does not necessarily result in a net benefit at the –Danny Merkley farm or watershed levels. The challenges associated with water supply, Furthermore, agricultural water conservation distribution, and use are the subject of has varying definitions,1 which can impede substantial conflict and widely divergent collaboration on appropriate and effective perspectives. Yet there is broad agreement solutions. For example, that demands on water supply in many regions conservation may be of California increasingly exceed availability, interpreted to refer to Agricultural water stewardship particularly given the constraints of current reductions in applied can be definedas the use water infrastructure and use patterns. Clearly, a water, a decrease in broad set of solutions will be needed to address consumptive water use, a of water in a manner that the growing problems associated with water decline in the amount of optimizes agricultural water management. In addition, the inherently regional freshwater flowing to salt use while addressing the co- nature of these problems mandates different sinks and polluted water benefits of water for food approaches in different contexts. bodies, or the elimination of wasted water through production, the environment, One common call has been for the agricultural greater water use and human health. sector to improve water management and efficiency by agricultural reduce overall consumption of water. Practices crops. While each of that reduce applied water to agricultural lands these objectives has a role to play in good represent a powerful and broadly supported water management and policy, the California solution set. For example, water conservation Roundtable on Water and Food Supply can help to protect the quality of groundwater recommends “agricultural water stewardship” and surface water, save farmers money, augment as a more useful concept to guide thinking stream flows, reduce tailwater runoff, conserve and decision-making for agricultural water use energy, and store water for subsequent drought within California. periods. But these outcomes are not universal. Reducing Agricultural Water applied water may have undesirable outcomes. In some cases, the benefits of water applied Stewardship Builds over and above a crop’s needs include availability Agricultural and Ecological for on-farm re-use, groundwater recharge, the Resilience provision of wildlife habitat, or supply of runoff Agricultural water stewardship can be defined for possible use downstream. Eliminating farm as the use of water in a manner that optimizes runoff may be beneficial or detrimental to other agricultural water use while addressing the water users, depending on several factors, such co-benefits of water for food production, the as water quality, water source, crop rotation, environment, and human health. Agricultural location of the farm within the watershed, and farm inputs. There is added concern in some cases that water conservation will reduce flexibility in the system, decrease yields, and 1 See Glossary on page 9 for the definitions of key terms used in this report. Agricultural Water Stewardship 1 water stewardship is premised on the notion Beneficial Management Practices that water management decisions cannot be made independent of ecological, social, and Many practices that could enhance performance on a economic contexts. It takes into account wide range of water stewardship indicators are already local biogeographical considerations such as known, but their application should be expanded. soil type, soil ecology, topography, agronomic Examples* of beneficial practices include: inputs, and terrestrial and aquatic ecology. Agricultural water stewardship emphasizes On-farm stewardship practices whole-farm approaches that acknowledge the • Use of irrigation systems that are designed for role of agriculture in the local watershed and optimum “distribution uniformity,” with appropriate community. Effective stewardship results in management to also achieve a high efficiency for the provision of multiple types of ecosystem each irrigation and location services—the human benefits garnered from • Improvement of relative timing of water applications well-functioning ecosystems, including agro- and chemical and nutrient inputs to minimize aquifer ecosystems. In summary, the local and regional pollution context in which a farm operates will determine • Tailwater ponds and return systems the best water management approaches to • Vegetated filter strips maximize water use efficiency, minimize adverse • Efforts to reinstate natural flows and hydrograph environmental impacts, and balance trade-offs cycles for society as a whole. • Restoration of riparian corridors and other waterways for multiple ecosystem services (e.g., Agricultural water stewardship takes into infiltration, soil and water quality, wildlife habitat, etc.) account a broad range of variables in identifying • Soil management regimes to enhance infiltration balanced solutions. Importantly, it embraces the and retention of water in soils, including cover crops, full spectrum of solutions, from cutting-edge amendments, minimum tillage technology to the cultural and
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