Transcript:
Winters in western Oregon tend to be cool and rainy. But summers are usually very dry. So many farmers in the region irrigate their crops. And much of the water they use comes from rivers that are fed by mountain snowpack.
But as the climate warms, that snowpack is shrinking.
Roesch-McNally: “It is, over time, going to really impact how people irrigate their crops.”
That’s Gabrielle Roesch-McNally of the Dry Farming Institute.
Her group helps farmers in the region learn how to grow crops including tomatoes, melons, beans, and squash without irrigating during the dry summer season.
For example, they can help their soil retain moisture from winter rains by mulching and adding compost to their fields.
And spacing plants more widely can help them develop longer roots to access water that’s held deeper in the soil.
The Dry Farming Institute teaches farmers about these methods and tests crop varieties to identify which can thrive in dry-farmed conditions.
Roesch-McNally: “We also encourage a lot of experimentation and then knowledge sharing to see, like, what works in a particular context.”
So even if they do not stop watering entirely, farmers can reduce how much they rely on irrigation as the climate warms and water becomes scarcer.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
