"Since the
center pivots’ debut some six decades ago, the amount of irrigated
cropland in Kansas has grown to nearly three million acres, from a mere
250,000 in 1950. But the pivot irrigators’ thirst for water
— hundreds and sometimes thousands of gallons a minute — has sent much
of the aquifer on a relentless decline.... A shift to growing corn, a
much thirstier crop than most, has only worsened matters. Driven by
demand, speculation and a government mandate to produce biofuels, the
price of corn has tripled since 2002, and Kansas farmers have responded
by increasing the acreage of irrigated cornfields by nearly a fifth. At
an average 14 inches per acre in a growing season, a corn crop soaks up
groundwater like a sponge — in 2010, the State Agriculture Department
said, enough to fill a space a mile square and nearly 2,100 feet high."
Read the full article here on the draining of the Ogallala aquifer.
No comments:
Post a Comment