World Perspectives

Climate Change and Irrigation

According to a study in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the adverse impact from heat and drought over the past 50 years in Europe have tripled crop losses from 2.2 percent to 7.3 percent. The impacts have been higher for row crops such as grains used to feed livestock. This is likely because the higher market value of specialty crops better covers the cost of water management on those acres. Yet the investment in increased irrigation in Europe has been relatively stagnant. Spain, which has historically experienced more drought than northern Europe, has invested more than other countries. The data may not be fully accurate but boosting funding for irrigation would mean intensification of production and thus perceived harmful to...

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From WPI Consulting

Illuminating the value of technical research

On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.

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