Video Faced with climate change and the risks of lack of water, how can the agricultural world adapt to continue to produce what nourishes us?
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With climate change, the heat waves and the rise in droughts, will France have enough water to cultivate its fields and feed its population? The question is a little more pressing each year as the heat waves accumulate. In the case of 2022, winter was exceptionally dry, and the significant rains of spring were long overdue. And even for those who irrigate their fields, difficult to get water in the water tables which are too low.
For some observers, these circumstances are exceptional, but climatic projections are final: this scenario is brought to repeat itself, often. To prepare for it, some farmers bet on the construction of water reserves to be completed in winter, but they are controversial. Others turn to new ways of working to store water, not in artificial reserves, but in the ground directly.
Sources:
climatic projections of Météo-France (climate hd) /p>
loss of agricultural production linked to droughts and heat waves in Europe, Bràs et al.
l Will agriculture run out of water? , INRAE, April 2022
Association for the promotion of sustainable agriculture (APAD)
Research program on the effects of soil conservation agriculture on water resources (INRAE)