When floods are more than just a nuisance
August 19, 2009

Having experienced massive and extraordinary flooding in the last year, Iowans are well-aware of the impact that natural events can have when water overwhelms croplands. But it's difficult to imagine what life would be like in a place like Bolivia, where floods are such a regular occurrence that they perpetually devastate conventional farms. Some farmers in the Bolivian Amazon are employing ancient raised-bed cropping methods in order to control the flooding and take advantage of it to provide storage for long-term irrigation supplies. It's a seemingly simple but quite logical way of turning a recurring disaster into a sustainable method of agriculture. Canal-type irrigation is only in limited use in parts of the United States, since there are much more efficient ways of delivering water where it is naturally scarce (canals lose a lot of water to evaporation and seepage). Where it is overly abundant, though, storage canals may be the smartest method around.

We can help you with canal gates and portable pumps, as well as other products for use on the farm. Please feel free to contact us with your questions.

August 2009
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last revised August 2009