A Tiny Piece of Plastic Is Helping Farmers Use Far Less Water

News

molly peters

Sep 24, 2021

I spent two days last week on farms in the Arizona desert photographing the N-Drip irrigation system for Bloomberg Businessweek. Drip irrigation is an innovative method which uses drastically less water than traditional flood irrigation, with more consistent water distribution throughout the fields, less fertilizer wasted through runoff, and less labor needed to maintain the system.

As the southwest USA grapples with climate change and an ongoing severe drought, and water resources like the Colorado River are shrinking and increasingly controlled, methods like this one offer promise for the future to conserve agricultural water use without affecting crop output negatively.

Read the full story at the link below, and you can check out a wider edit from the story on my website in the Commissions section. Many thanks to Amanda Savinon for the assignment and to Jane Yeomans for the referral!

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Molly Peters Photography

Molly Peters is a Tucson-based photographer working in fine art photography and documentary storytelling.