And climate and water. A Purdue University scientist has shown man-made changes to the landscape have affected Indian monsoon rains, suggesting that land-use decisions play an important role in climate change. . . Analysis of soil moisture showed that before monsoon rains came, the northwest region had become as much as 300 percent wetter in recent years relative to the past 30 years, which has been attributed to irrigation from groundwater to sustain intensified agricultural production. This wetter surface causes cooling that weakens the strength of low pressure necessary for monsoons to progress into northern India. . . "In this case, you need a warm, dry surface to advance the monsoon," said Niyogi, whose findings were published in the journal Water Resources Research. "Because of increased irrigation, you now have a wet, green area, which does not allow the monsoon to reach far enough north." . . . Urban areas, on the other hand, are being pounded with rain...

A way to look at the evolution of agriculture is as a progression from purely extractive hunting and gathering toward a system that produces as much as it consumes. This is a progression that is still proceeding and many of the threats of depletion heralded in activist screeds can be understood as aspects of this evolution that are currently being worked. Among those highly publicized concerns are the worries about soil carbon that are being exploited lately, and a related concern for water. New space observations reveal that since October 2003, the aquifers for California's primary agricultural region – the Central Valley – and its major mountain water source – the Sierra Nevada – have lost nearly enough water combined to fill Lake Mead, America's largest reservoir. The findings, based on satellite data, reflect California's extended drought and increased pumping of groundwater for human uses such as irrigation. . . "GRACE data reveal groundwater in these basins is being...

A.K.A. Zai. 2.1 Micro-catchment rainwater harvesting systems Perhaps the most successful of these techniques is the zai ("water pocket") in Burkina Faso Zai is an ancestral planting pit developed in the Yatenga province, North Western part of Burkina Faso (where average rainfall is about 600 mm, with recurrent droughts and where soils are heavily encrusted. . . the objective of the Zai practice is to regenerate the most degraded part of the field. It consists of digging holes or 'basins' of around 20-20 cm in diameter and 10-15 cm in depth. (Bandre and batta, 2002). The holes store rainwater, for plant growth. Generally the density is about 10,000-15,000 holes/ha depending on the crop chosen and the spacing between holes. Farmers use stone contour bunds to reduce the speed of runoff allowing infiltration into the zai which collect and concentrate the runoff. The larger the planting pits, and the bigger the spacing, the more water can be harvested from the...

A happily ignorant economist. California is perpetually portrayed as suffering from a shortage of water. Case in point: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently declared a statewide drought, telling citizens to prepare for rationing. But the state's problems are not a result of too little water. The real problem is that the price of water in California, as in most of America, has virtually nothing to do with supply and demand. Although water is distributed by public and private monopolies that could easily charge high prices, municipalities and regulators set prices that are as low as possible. Underpriced water sends the wrong signal to the people using it: It tells them not to worry about how much they use. . . I propose a system where every person gets the first 75 gallons, or 1.5 bathtubs, per day for free but pays $5.60 for each 75 gallons after that. Under my system, the monthly bill for the average household of three...