K-State: We can solve our water crisis together, or all starve together | Commentary

Kansas is an agricultural powerhouse.

We lead the nation in wheat and sorghum production, we have the third-largest number of cattle on ranches and in feed yards, and we have one of the fastest-growing dairy regions in the country.

Our farmers and ranchers should hold their heads up high.

But it is hard to look up with pride when those same farmers and ranchers are looking down with worry at deep cracks in parched soil.

Agriculture is under threat.

Today, almost 80% of Kansas is in severe drought, leaving much of our croplands dependent on irrigation. The farmers who supply wheat for our mills, corn for our fuel and feed for the beef and pork on our tables are watching this emergency unfold in real time as they experience crop losses and negative impacts to feed and forage supply chains.

This is particularly apparent in western Kansas, where limited precipitation, combined with extensive pumping of the Ogallala Aquifer, has resulted in staggering water level declines.

In the last 20 years, the parts of the Ogallala underlying Kansas have dropped as much as 1.7 feet.

If we follow the same trajectory, the aquifer will be 70% depleted in 50 years, and we will not have enough water to support our farms, the lifeblood of our state’s economy and our communities.

These undeniable facts are daunting and discouraging, but here at Kansas State University, we strive to meet crisis with clarity, adversity with resilience, and uncertainty with investment.

The current situation heightens the need to find a new path forward. The research, teaching and extension work at K-State aims to put innovation into practice. This includes making precision agricultural technologies and strategies accessible, improving regional understanding regarding effective dryland and advanced water and soil management practices, and encouraging the adoption and use of weather-based irrigation scheduling tools and drought-tolerant crop varieties.

David Beasley, the executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, knows a thing or two about these issues.

As part of the university’s Landon Lecture series, he recently told faculty and students that “because of Kansas, we have less hunger today around the world, and because of that we have less destabilization, less migration. But (the world is) facing a crisis now unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. So, we need that expertise of Kansas, and Kansas State University, to step up in ways that we’ve never seen before.”

K-State is ready to answer this call. Our strategic vision includes prioritizing investment to build and renovate College of Agriculture facilities to tackle these problems. The Innovation Centers for Grain, Food, Animal, and Agronomy Research is a $125 million project to support diverse teams with a focus on the increasingly complex opportunities and challenges facing agriculture.

These facilities will provide a foundation for collaboration and integrate innovative solutions and products, while laying the groundwork for the next-generation workforce to move agriculture into the future.

Such an investment will make it possible for us to exponentially increase research production and perfect advanced agricultural technology to address the challenges we face.

Our water emergency is real and undeniable. Kansans need K-State’s world-class faculty and extension professionals, extraordinary research scientists and talented students to deliver state-of-the-art solutions to the issues of water scarcity and food insecurity, to sprint fast enough to vault us over an ever-widening gap.

Solving this issue is possible — but Kansans know that there are no quick fixes. What remains is for us to enact strategic, near-term and bold investments for the future of food production.

This story was originally published November 23, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "K-State: We can solve our water crisis together, or all starve together | Commentary."