Oral Session

S06 Soil & Water Management & Conservation

The old green revolution was actually a blue-green revolution whose success involved increases in irrigated areas around the world and in water management as much as it did improvements in plant varieties and fertilization. The irrigation and water management aspects have been largely ignored, but the green revolution would not have been nearly as successful without them. It might even have failed. We also risk failure in a second green revolution if we focus only on energy and environmental security, while ignoring the water that is required for transpiration that results in yield. The water requirements for a bio-based energy system are enormous and causing a lot of concern in this country and elsewhere. Strategies to cope with this problem include the use of treated waste waters, TWW. For example, Egypt is experimenting with TWW to irrigate jatropha and jojoba. Many other examples exist.

Cosponsor(s):

A05 Environmental Quality