Even worse by treat-the-symptoms-rather-than-getting-to-the-root-of-the-problem policy

The shortage of groundwater resources and long-term high-intensity agricultural production have further intensified the water crisis in the Hebei Plain, an important grain production region. The government has implemented a limiting groundwater exploitation policy since 2014 to alleviate the contradiction between water and food security. Measures such as seasonal fallow, rain-fed agriculture, and irrigation efficiency have been implemented.

However, the recent study indicated a surprising result, along with improving irrigation efficiency the level of evapotranspiration and total water consumption of winter wheat in this area was increased by 32.58 mm and 1.09 billion m3?(>10%) compared with those before the policy. What a typical paradox of irrigation efficiency! Of course, it is other influencing factors, less precipitation and drought events due to climate change, planting area increase driven by yield-driven policy. The research also found big farmers having irrigation system prefer one more time irrigation than smallholders with conventional flooding. Flooding is labor- and time consuming, while irrigation system is automatic and easy. No surprise of one more push-button irrigation. Only subsidy of equipping irrigation systems is not enough and not an efficient incentive. Is the solution of reducing water usage to improve water efficiency? It is time to think outside the box, a holistic transformation.

Water is the result, let us zoom out and check broader view. You can image how much water the land loses and how much groundwater we need to wet the soil again when farmers prepare the seedbed and plough the soil for more than 3 times, remove all straws to bare the soil. You can image how fragile of our farm and how desperate for more and more water over drought season when the sponge-like soil structure was totally destroyed by your mutiple tillages a few weeks ago and soil does not have any pores to store air and water which you cannot see when you only see the water irrigation. All ways of farm managements affect the water demand and efficiency, especially in most water scarce regions.

What we are doing guided by regenerative agriculture principles in this area is a game changer. Rethinking the way of our farming and working with nature can drive us to a new path of nature positive and a new norm of efficiency. Building healthy soil system will bring us a bright future.

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（1）QUAN T, LI H J, SHEN Y J, WANG Z R, MIN L L, QI Y Q, ZHANG J Y. Changes in the area and water consumption of winter wheat under limiting groundwater exploitation in the Hebei Plain[J]. Chinese Journal of Eco-Agriculture, 2023, 31(9): 1460?1470 https://lnkd.in/gHc6UqRB

（2）R. Q. Grafton?et al., The paradox of irrigation efficiency. Science361,748-750(2018).DOI:10.1126/science.aat9314