Unlocking Water Management Secrets in Regenerative Agriculture. Aisha Hassan and Lukas Paltanavičius are cycling across the world to learn hands-on about practices of regenerative agriculture. In a series of articles, they will share their insights from the field. In this guest article they look at how regenerative farmers are managing water resources.
Water scarcity is an increasing problem in Europe, while many regions around the world are already experiencing water stress. Food production is often identified as a major contributor to water scarcity. It is, therefore, essential that we learn from each other to reduce water stress, even in areas where supplies are currently abundant.
During our farm visits, we have seen areas that were hit hardest by water scarcity, in countries like Jordan and Kenya.
It didn’t take much research to realise that we’ve been so passive in our farming approach: water is scarce yet we used no rain harvest.
Rakan Mehyar, from Carob Farm, Jordan
Rakan Mehyar, the owner of a Carob farm in Madaba, Jordan, has faced water stress since he began farming. Madaba has a ‘steppe’ or semi-arid climate with an average annual rainfall of 191 mm a year.
When starting his farming career, Rakan designed his farm to capture and use rainwater as efficiently as possible. During an organized farm tour, he explained that the first step in designing a water management system was to identify the highest possible altitude on the farm.
