Perspectives on Innovative Approaches in Agriculture to Managing Water Scarcity

Water planning and governance strategies must adapt to a new reality with challenges associated with population growth, drought, and projected water shortages. While New Mexico follows the seniority-based doctrine of prior appropriation to allocate water, the management of water often involves collaborative practices and innovations not often associated with the doctrine itself. This research, funded by UNM’s NSF CREST grant and also UNM Advance, boasts a recent Women in STEM award.  It investigates collaborative strategies through interviews with New Mexican farmers and others with the objective of learning about new and existing approaches and opportunities to innovate on water governance. The results will be useful to the state of New Mexico as well as other places with similar water governance structures and water scarcity challenges.