JANUARY 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


13 Okanagan growth curve drains water supplies


Agricultural water use faces a changing climate, population increase


by TOM WALKER


KELOWNA – There’s an elephant in the room when it comes to water use in the Okanagan, but it certainly isn’t how much water local farms are using.


“There are a lot of strategies in place for managing water, including installing efficient, well-engineered irrigation systems, reducing water evaporation through mulching, and irrigation scheduling to meet plant requirements,” Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research scientist Denise Neilsen told a recent Flow and Grow workshop in Kelowna. According to 2006 data in the BC Ministry of


Agriculture’s agriculture water demand model, Okanagan farmers don't use as much water as some people think. “Only 56% of the water was being used by agriculture. Another 30% went to other outdoor uses like households, parks and golf courses, and the remaining 26% to indoor uses,” Nielsen says.


Across the entire Okanagan Valley, from Osoyoos to Armstrong, forage crops (including corn) represented the largest use of agricultural land. Apples, then grapes, cherries and soft fruits, were next in acreage.


But these crops weren’t even the biggest draw on local water supplies. Neilsen says grapes


actually use the least amount of water, at 368 mm per hectare, while parks, turf farms and golf courses have the highest demand, at 880 mm per hectare.


“Certain irrigation systems are much more efficient than others,” Neilsen adds. “There is a much lower use by drip irrigation and micro-irrigation and a much larger use by landscape sprinklers.” Neilsen shared data from 2014 that highlighted some interesting changes since 2006.


Irrigated area in the Okanagan has increased by 11%, bringing the total to 20,598 hectares, with forage


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increasing from 45% to 50% of the farmed area. Apples decreased by 30%, cherries increased by 47%, and grapes increased by 41%.


“Water use has gone up by 10%, which is a little less than the crop area increased,” Neilsen points out. “But it has decreased for fruit and vegetable crops nearly 10%, from 53% down to 45% in total.”


The change occurred thanks to a shift to efficient


irrigation systems.


“There has been a growth in the use of both drip and micro-irrigation (systems) and low pressure pivots from 21% in 2006 to 34% in 2014,” Nielsen says. “The biggest change occurred in fruit and vegetable farms because these are the crops that can be grown with efficient irrigation systems”


In 2006, just 37% of fruit and vegetables grown in the Okanagan were irrigated


efficiently. By 2014, 64% of Okanagan farms had efficient irrigation.


Neilsen explains that the cost of water, changing production systems, changing to crops that benefit from efficient irrigation and a general attitude towards conserving water all contributed to the uptake. “This is a huge change in how agricultural water is managed in the Okanagan,” Neilsen points out. “So, I


would says that yes, people are listening.”


As for the future, Neilsen says researchers have looked at irrigation demand and climate change scenarios as well as agriculture and urban development out to 2040. “The change in demand due to climate change will actually be relatively small in that short period of time,” she says. “But if we irrigate all suitable agricultural land, we would have about a 50% increase in use.”


Nielsen expects only a small change over time in water use if urban growth is managed well and stays within its current footprint. “But as soon as you start bringing in the land outside of the current footprint and the Agricultural Land Reserve (such as urban sprawl up above the Okanagan bench lands), there is a huge potential increase here – a doubling of demand,” she warns.


Growth, she believes, is the key problem facing the Okanagan, increasing the region’s risk of not having a safe and reliable supply of water.


“I would say that growth is probably the elephant in the room,” Neilsen concludes. “It’s the one thing we really don’t like to talk about.”


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