Mitchell Baalman's well is drying up. This is bad news for a farmer of thirsty crops in parched north-western Kansas. Four years ago Mr Baalman and other local farmers realised that unless they started saving water there might not be enough left for their children and grandchildren to irrigate the soil. So they are trying something new: voluntarily cutting back on the amount they use, even though they will grow less. The Ogallala Aquifer runs from South Dakota to Texas. In many places water is pumped far faster than the aquifer can recharge naturally from rivers and rainfall. The consequences of overuse are not always clear. But Kansas now has an unusually detailed portrait of groundwater use and its implications for future farm production, thanks to research by academics at Kansas State University (ksu).
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