Detail Making Farmers Matter   Oleh:  [s.n] Jenis: Article from Bulletin/Magazine Dalam koleksi: The Economist (http://search.proquest.com/) vol. 395 no. 8683 (May 2010), page 11-12. Topik: Groundwater; Farming; Economic Conditions; International Ketersediaan Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: EE29.63 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada     Lihat Detail Induk Isi artikel Of all the activities that need water, far and away the thirstiest is farming. Cut the use of irrigation water by 10%, it is said, and you would save more than is lost in evaporation by all other consumers. Yet farming is crucial. Not only does it provide the food that all mankind requires, but it is also a great engine of economic growth for the three-quarters of the world's poor who live in the countryside. Without water they may return to pastoralism--as some people already have in parts of the Sahel in Africa--or migrate, or starve. With water, they may fight their way out of poverty. Surface water, though, is not enough to meet farmers' needs. In the United States total withdrawals of water remained steady between 1985 and 2000 but groundwater withdrawals rose by 14%, mainly for agriculture, and in the period 1950-2000 they more than doubled. Europe, too, increasingly relies on groundwater, as does the Middle East. It is India, though, that draws more groundwater than any other country. The proliferation has brought prosperity and an almost lush landscape to places like Punjab, which grows over half of India's rice and wheat. But out of sight, underground, there is trouble. Water is being extracted faster than it is replaced and levels are falling, often by two or three times the officially reported rate, according to Upmanu Lall, of Columbia University. Opini Anda Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini! Kembali

Copyright © 2006, 2007 Unika Atma Jaya, all rights reserved