Water Conservation Efforts Also Prove to Be Profitable, Study Shows

It’s been 10 years since the Kansas legislature passed a bill that gave groundwater management districts the authority to initiate voluntary steps to meet water conservation goals, and a Kansas State University agricultural economist says the state’s faith in farmers seems to be well placed.

Bill Golden said farmers in the Sheridan 6 Local Enhanced Management Area – a high priority area located within Groundwater Management District #4 in northwest Kansas – have reduced their water use by at least 20% compared to neighbors who have yet to commit to the LEMA. The original agreement began in 2013.

“I did an economic study between 2006 and 2013…and we predicted that farmers (participating in a LEMA) would lose money,” Golden said. “We thought that reducing water use was a great idea; it’s going to help the Ogallala Aquifer, but you’re going to lose some money.”

That has not turned out to be the case, according to Golden, who says that because they improved efficiency on their farm – such as taking advantage of available rainfall, implementing soil moisture monitors or changing their seeding and fertilizer rates – farmers actually are making more money on their cropland.

“At the end of the first five years (2018), the producers in Sheridan 6 decided to continue what they were doing,” Golden said. “In fact, Groundwater Management District No. 4 decided to have a district-wide LEMA.”

LEMAs became part of Kansas water law in 2012 when the state’s legislature passed SB 310. A LEMA is a producer-driven conservation program in which farmers form a contract with the Kansas Division of Water Resources to voluntarily reduce their use of water. The agreement can be for any amount of time and include whatever goals the farmers decide upon.

In the Sheridan 6 LEMA, farmers originally decided to reduce water use by 20% over five years, which amounted to an allocation of 55 inches of water per acre over a five-year period. Some years, they might use more of their allocation; other years, a little less.

Source: k-state.edu