CropsThe federal order of 21 August takes 760,000 acre-feet a year from Arizona through 2028, but senior water rights spare the Yuma growers who supply about 90 per cent of North America's winter leafy greens, unless another poor snowpack brings deeper cuts.
Kansas State doctoral student Kelechi Igwe combines drone imagery, air temperature and soil moisture to estimate stomatal conductance across whole fields; his machine-learning model, about 50% accurate, flagged stressed patches that still looked green.
EnvironmentUniversity of Arizona climate scientist Michael Crimmins expects the El Niño now building to peak in November, three months earlier than the previous record event, bringing a wet winter to the Southwest and Southeast, flooding risk to Yuma's winter greens, no cure for the Colorado River deficit, and
AgrotechBuilt by Lethbridge Polytechnic's Mueller Irrigation Research Group with AAFC and Saskatchewan Agriculture, the free web tool combines Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery, NDVI and open weather data to chart evapotranspiration for any field a grower draws on the map.
Better forecasts do not automatically mean fewer losses, IWMI's Mohsin Hafeez told a CGIAR webinar on drought resilience, citing sensor-guided irrigation in Tanzania that cut water use by an average of 60% while lifting yields.
With the WMO forecasting an El Nino that could last into early next year, IRRI's Sharif Ahmed, SAU's Abu Noman Faruq Ahmmed, BARI's Jamal Uddin and Professor Jahangir Alam Khan say the late Aman, the winter crops and above all the irrigation-dependent Boro need preparation now; DAE chief Md Abdur Ra
Officials from Kisumu, Siaya, Busia and Vihiga counties reviewed fertiliser-recommendation and irrigation-advisory tools with national ministries and researchers, feeding into two policy briefs under the iSPARK project.
IWMI and Ethiopian ministries have co-developed the country's first public-private partnership strategy for small-scale irrigation, built on seven business models and pilot schemes in Sidama and Central Ethiopia.
EnvironmentAmerican irrigated area grew more than tenfold from 1890 but has stalled since 1997, even as the water applied to each acre has fallen sharply.
AgribusinessA World Bank Group report released on June 29, 2026 estimated that an extra US$12 billion a year for water-efficient irrigation and farm innovation, with policy reform, could help create 5 million jobs in the region by 2050 and lift cereal yields by 72 percent.
EnvironmentThe World Bank-backed Second Irrigation and Drainage Improvement Project (IDIP-2) rehabilitated canals and hydraulic structures in four southern regions, improving irrigation and drainage on more than 100,000 hectares and bringing remote pump control.
EnvironmentOn 12 June 2026 the World Bank approved $95.75 million for the Kyrgyz Republic National Irrigation Investment Program, which was expected to improve irrigation services on about 82,000 hectares and benefit more than 450,000 people.
EnvironmentUSDA said on 29 May 2026 that nearly 23,000 American farmers, ranchers and landowners would be asked about tillage, fertiliser, manure, irrigation and installed conservation practices for the Conservation Effects Assessment Project survey.
