LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – At the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, experts are addressing water security issues, specifically in agriculture.
Clint Krehbiel, Dean of the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Texas Tech, said this area is a great location to host a summit such as this one, the Agriculture Water Sustainability Summit.
“West Texas is one of the very, very important regions relative to food and fiber security,” Krehbiel said. “Of course the largest cotton patch here in the world in West Texas in terms of total number of acres. Think about the beef cattle we produce and the dairy industry and the growth within the dairy industry.”
Krehbiel said the summit comes at a time where solutions need to be worked on, especially with the Ogallala Aquifer, which Lubbock sits on, depleting year after year.
“Thinking about cropping systems that are more water secure and all the research we’re doing around genetics and genomics to make cotton more heat tolerant and require less water,” Krehbiel said. “Then, cropping systems like the increase in grain sorghum for both silage and for starch production, for grain production, feed production.”
Texas Senator Charles Perry spoke on Tuesday about what’s being done on the legislative side of things, including Senate Bill 7, which he authored and goes through the oversight and financing of water infrastructure.
It’s not just about what’s being done here in Texas, it’s about global efforts, too, with members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark joining the summit on Wednesday.
“We think about regions of the world that have very similar grand challenges to west Texas,” Krehbiel said, “and so again working together and bringing people that have experienced it, that have grown and evolved in a way that’s been successful.”
Krehbiel said water sustainability is not a challenge that’s going to be fixed overnight, but these collaborations will go a long way in preserving the water supply.
“Talk about these issues, create new technologies, research scientific discoveries, engineering technologies that again help us solve these issues for the people of West Texas and beyond,” he said.
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