Drought: California agriculture can learn from Africa

San Jose Mercury ^ | 03/23/2015 | Danielle Nierenberg and Daniel Bornstein

[artichokegrower]

Vast tracts of Southern California's bountiful harvests are fading from view, as millions of acres of irrigated land have been removed from production as a result of drought.

[artichokegrower]

Farmers in Mali, for example, convened a "citizens' jury" with the help of the International Institute for the Environment and Development, and proposed that crop researchers hone in on traditional seed varieties. These crops are typically better at withstanding drought--and can offer more resilience for farmers' livelihoods than so-called high-yielding varieties that often get touted as the solution for African food insecurity.

The citizens of Mali have the distinction of having the lowest standard of living of any people on the planet Earth. What would I want to learn from them?

[Calvin Locke]

...the lowest standard of living of any people on the planet Earth. What would I want to learn from them?

If Obola is continually allowed to run a muck, plenty.

[ozzymandus]

Another PC article written by a leftist idiot.

[Impy]

They are probably good at swatting flies.

[stylin_geek]

There is plenty of water available, providing, of course, the stupid environmentalists would allow desalinization plants to be be built and all energy sources utilized.

Cheap power = pure water.

One cannot ration one’s way to new supplies. At some point, things have to change or you die of thirst. And, with agriculture killed in the Central Valley, there’s good chance of starvation to go with thirst.

[Sooth2222]

We nave much to learn! What could possibly be more "natural" (and "environmentally sensitive") than dying of starvation in a drought?

[CARTOUCHE]

And the next thing they’ll do with a fallow Central Valley is to build more homes because the land will be worth even more at least for the developers who will buy it up like it is the Cimmaron Strip.

[CrazyIvan]

Maybe they can get a bunch of narcissistic pop musicians to do a benefit performance for them.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“What would I want to learn from them? “

How not to be Mali.

[Mastador1]

Should we learn how to “necklace” those that don’t agree with us or kill someone for witchcraft? I think I’ll stick with modern solutions from a first world society thank you. It would make much more sense for California to follow Israel’s example and invest in desalination plants, see a modern solution from a first world society.

[Iron Munro]

Instead of building a one hundred billion dollar boondoggle “High-Speed Train To Nowhere” California could be building nuclear powered sea water distillation plants.

But the state politicians and their fat cat pals who bought the land where the tracks and stations will be built wouldn’t like that.

[citizen352]

Water desalination plants are the way to go. Water desalination plants are being built all over the world. This comes from Wikipedia. I picked this one because it is the first link I saw.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination

[tbw2]

Not pouring fresh water into the ocean for the sake of salmon and smelt while people return farmland to desert would be a good start.