Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

Summer 2023

Abstract

The Rio Grande has irrigated agricultural land in central New Mexico since time immemorial. Today, agriculture in New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande valley is adapting to an increasingly scarce water supply due to long-term drought and climate change (Dunbar et al., 2022). As supply is decreasing, demands are increasing because of several factors: an increase in evapotranspiration (Dunbar et al., 2022); population growth in the Middle Rio Grande valley (NM LFC, 2021); and legal obligations to provide water for endangered species and to Texas and Mexico (NM ISC, 2017). Agriculture is largest water use by sector in the Rio Grande basin (Magnuson et al., 2019) and in the Western United States (USGS, 2019). Agricultural water users face pressure to conserve water and/or share it with other users. Legal, social, and cultural barriers can make these actions hard to pursue without risk of loss of access to water and threats to rural livelihoods and communities (Taylor et al., 2019). Since agriculture is the dominant water user in the Western U.S., it is critical to understand ideas to manage scarce water resources from the perspective of farmers and those who work with agricultural water users. For this paper we ask: How are agricultural water users managing long-term drought within the Middle Rio Grande? What enables or prevents them from taking innovative actions to manage drought? To answer our questions, we interviewed farmers, decision makers and non-governmental leaders influencing agricultural water governance in the New Mexico Middle Rio Grande basin. Interviews explored agricultural water users’ lived experiences with water governance and opportunities to manage water scarcity. Thirty-nine semi-structured interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using qualitative data analysis software to organize data and synthesize themes. We found that decreasing water supplies in New Mexico are already impacting farmers’ crop choices, preferred irrigation methods, and ability to pursue innovative 3 actions. Cost, irrigation delivery schedules and a lack of access to information may prevent water users from taking innovative actions to manage drought in the Middle Rio Grande. Barriers to agricultural conservation and efficiency have been studied in other parts of the New Mexico’s Rio Grande basin (Berthold et al., 2021; Samimi et al., 2023; Ward et al., 2007), while Gensler et al. (2009) and Kinzli et. al (2011) examined regional decision-making support systems for irrigation in the basin. Given the limited published information about innovations in agricultural water use in New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande, the results of this paper will be useful to the state of New Mexico and other places with similar water governance structures and water scarcity challenges.

Keywords

conservation, efficiency, water, agriculture, collaboration

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