When the driest January-March in more than 100 years turned the dark, moist soil in Dennis Bragg’s cornfields to a hard, dusty desert, the Madison County farmer did something he never dreamed of doing this time of year. He irrigated.”We planted the corn and needed to water it to be sure it would come up and not just sprout and then run out of moisture and die,” Bragg said. “This is the first time I’ve ever watered anything in March. You never think you’re going to plant a crop in the dust and have to water it to get it up.”But with Alabama now in the midst of a 27-month drought — the worst since 1954 — Bragg will likely be relying on irrigation not only at planting time, but also throughout the growing season. Unfortunately, Bragg, who irrigates a third of his cropland, is the exception rather than the rule. Most of the state’s farmers don’t have irrigation. Despite Alabama having more miles of navigable waterways and more annual runoff than any other state, only about 100,000 acres of Alabama farmland are irrigated, compared to 1.2 million acres in Georgia.A new effort supported by the Alabama Farmers Federation, however, is trying to change those numbers. The Alabama Irrigation Initiative includes a study to determine the feasibility of expanding irrigation efforts in Alabama as well as state and federal legislation that would aid farmers in developing the infrastructure necessary to provide water to their crops.”This collaboration between many of our research universities will help determine whether large-scale irrigation is a viable option for the Southeast,” said Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, who helped secure funding for the research project. “This study will also provide critical information for both farmers and local government, regarding the health of Alabama’s water resources.”Drs. Richard McNider and John Christy, both atmospheric scientists at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Dr. Jim Hairston of Auburn University are spearheading the research project. Although they received funding to begin the official study last October, McNider said the team has been gathering data on water use for more than six years — building on research done during the past three decades by Larry Curtis, a biosystems engineer with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.”The intent of the study is to determine whether making an investment in irrigation in Alabama is the right thing to do — whether it is the right thing economically for the state to do and whether it is the right thing environmentally for the state to do,” said McNider.Thus far, the answer to both questions has been a resounding “yes.”From an economic standpoint, Alabama has lost 2 million acres of corn and another million acres of cotton since 1950 due, in part, to a lack of irrigation. According to McNider, these losses each year cost local economies $500-$750 per acre.Meanwhile, other states have benefited from Alabama’s hesitancy to embrace irrigation. Corn production has shifted to the Midwest where deep, water-holding soils produce better, more-dependable yields. And, cotton acreage has shifted to the arid West, where government-subsidized irrigation is being stretched to its limits.Ironically, the researchers have found irrigation in the Southeast, and particularly Alabama, would be much more efficient than costly systems now in place in Arizona and California. According to their research, most Alabama crops need only 6-9 inches of irrigation to supplement the state’s 50-plus inches of average annual rainfall. In dry western climates, those same plants would need up to 4 feet of irrigated water.That leads to McNider’s second point: Irrigation in Alabama, when properly implemented, is the right thing to do environmentally. Not only is Southeast irrigation more efficient, but it also can be done without negatively impacting wildlife habitat, soil salinity or municipal water supplies.Alabama Congressman Terry Everett agrees. In fact, he is sponsoring legislation that could provide federal cost-share assistance for stream-fed ponds to capture the state’s abundant water during the rainy, winter months and store it for use during summer.”Drought mitigation has not worked in the past,” Everett said. “Ad hoc disaster bills really offer little for farmers. What we need is some on-site storage, off-stream storage, where we can collect water during the off-season.”We simply can’t continue to feed (America) at the low cost we have for years unless we get additional cropland under irrigation, and this is one way to do that,” he added.Everett’s analysis of the country’s food needs is consistent with that of the UAH and Auburn University researchers. While the nation’s population is expected to grow by 50 percent in the next few decades, irrigation of western farmland will become increasingly difficult. Already, 33 percent of available water in the Texas/Oklahoma region is being consumed, and 100 percent of available water is being consumed in southern California.Contrast that with the Southeast, where only 3 percent of available surface water is utilized, and it?s easy to see why McNider says the Alabama Irrigation Initiative may be good for the nation as a whole.”Our need for irrigation infrastructure may be right in line with what the country needs,” he said.If Alabama doesn’t invest in irrigation, however, the state’s cropland will likely diminish. One model shows that, since 1950, farmers have lost an average of $9 per acre growing rain-fed corn, while they could have made $217 per acre if those same fields had been irrigated. But corn isn’t the only crop where the state’s lack of irrigation has put farmers at a competitive disadvantage. Cotton, soybeans, peanuts, vegetables and other commodities also would benefit from increased watering. That has prompted the state’s largest general farm organization to make the Alabama Irrigation Initiative a legislative priority.”If we are going to be successful farming in the future, we can’t continue to depend on rainfall. We need to be able to irrigate every field we have,” said Alabama Farmers Federation President Jerry A. Newby.Few farmers, however, have access to abundant well water or nearby streams, and many beginning farmers don’t have the financial resources to withstand droughts. That’s why Bragg says it’s imperative for Alabama to develop the infrastructure to capture excess water from stream flows in the winter months for use during the growing season.”If we don’t do these things, dry-land farming will not be able to compete domestically with irrigated land or globally with cheaper input crops. That’s what will happen in my generation,” Bragg said. “But if we irrigate, what will happen in Alabama is agriculture will grow. It will grow on a personal level, and it will grow Alabama’s economy. And we will be here to reap the rewards of things we can’t even see yet.”