Technology originally designed for space exploration shows some promise for providing critical evapotransporation data that could serve farmers in semi-arid environments. Can it save agriculture’s water supplies in the West?

A new low-cost graphene-based 'sensor-on-tape' developed by Iowa State University, can be attached to plants and provide new kinds of data to researchers and farmers.

About 20 years ago, Ron, Robert and Earl Rayner of A Tumbling T Ranches in Goodyear, Ariz., began developing a no-till double-cropped cotton and wheat planting as part of an overall crop rotation they follow. This video chronicles their progress and highlights the success they've had in managing risks, sustaining productivity, economizing on water use, improving soil function, reducing soil temperature and developing a successful reduced-disturbance production system.

Integration of no-till, crop diversity and cover crops increases microbial activity and diversity and can boost crop yields by 15-30%, with the same or even reduced inputs, says USDA researcher Randy Anderson.

Some crops can improve water-use efficiency of the following crops and reduce weed competition for soil moisture, says USDA agronomist Randy Anderson.

A no-till who replaced summerfallow with field peas has nearly doubled water-use efficiency in winter wheat without a yield reduction.

Comparing water efficiency data with numerous cropping systems can help you determine which rotations are best suited to maximize available moisture and improve profitability.

The problems surrounding the Ogallala aquifer in the Great Plains, and the threat to its sustainability for future generations of farmers, are well documented, as the world’s largest freshwater aquifer has declined by some 38 million acre-feet in the last several decades.