00:00 news. Drought, heat and water shortages, crops dying of thirst. It affects all of us. Drought
00:07 causes 9 billion euros of damage per year in Europe alone. That could soon rise to 65
00:12 billion if nothing is done.
00:16 Somebody always pays. The farmer, the taxpayer, the consumer or the planet.
00:23 Economically, it's just not possible to keep on doing as we have done in the last decade.
00:30 How can we stop agriculture from drying up?
00:39 Farmers like Nathizo Ruiz are at a loss. His grain ought to be this high. He can no longer
00:46 feed his family from what he grows and plans to give up production.
00:51 It won't even be worth harvesting. And there are many fields where nothing grows. It may
00:57 be that the fuel for the harvester is worth more than the grain it will deliver.
01:04 In Europe, temperatures have risen twice as fast as the global average in the last 30
01:08 years. This drought indicator shows much of the continent colored orange for warning.
01:13 Spain is red for alert.
01:15 We do see a decrease in rainfall, for example, in the Mediterranean region and also in southern
01:22 Africa. So that there we do have really a double whammy of climate change impacts on
01:29 water availability and heat. But in other parts of the world, the rainfall itself, the
01:36 lack of rainfall is not affected.
01:43 Farmers in India have not been able to harvest much grain due to record heat and floods.
01:48 Indians are now paying much more, about 10% more. Food inflation has risen.
01:54 And worldwide, India's ban on rice exports is driving up prices.
02:01 One of the things that farmers are doing in order to increase their resilience in the
02:08 face of drought is investing in irrigation technology.
02:13 Drip irrigation is supposed to be especially efficient. The feeder pipes lie directly amongst
02:19 the plants and release small amounts of water, like here at Castel Winery near Jerusalem.
02:26 Israel is extremely dry. It has a worldwide reputation as a model for sustainable irrigation.
02:33 The country also implements other measures, such as seawater desalination plants. Israel
02:38 intends to use them to supply around 90% of its drinking water in the future.
02:45 Drip irrigation is commonly used by farmers here. Plants are mostly wet directly at their
02:49 roots in order to save water.
02:52 So if you compare drip irrigation for rice to rice growing in paddy, you save 75, 80,
03:01 65% of the water. But again, it depends on how you compare it, it depends on the crop,
03:08 on the climate and so on and so forth. Anything, I would say that a good plug number is around
03:15 30%.
03:16 The Israeli company Netafim produces the systems and is seen as a pioneer of drip irrigation.
03:22 Right now, demand is rising, especially from major agricultural producers. Countries like
03:28 the US, Brazil and China, which are among the world's biggest food exporters.
03:35 But technology is not always the answer.
03:41 Every time that we have ever seen an expansion of irrigation technology, we have seen an
03:47 increase in water consumption through agriculture. That means they produce thirstier crops. It
03:54 means they expand the area under irrigation.
04:00 And many smaller scale farmers cannot afford electricity, pumps and filters. They remain
04:06 dependent on rainwater, like most farmers all the world over.
04:12 This is not an argument against efficient irrigation. Not at all. What it means is that
04:20 irrigation systems alone will not solve challenges related to water stress and scarcity.
04:27 They need to be addressed through technological fixes, behavioral change and policy change.
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