NMSU Researchers Address Water Management Challenges

In the water-scarce desert Southwest, the agricultural, urban and environmental sectors are constantly competing for limited water. So how do you handle the fact that each stakeholder within those sectors wants something different in a water management strategy, for now and for the future?

That’s the fundamental question that a team of New Mexico State University researchers is hoping to answer as they collaborate with research partners from several institutions, including the University of Texas El Paso and the University of New Mexico, on a five-year, $4.9 million study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

“Here’s the problem with water: There’s never enough of it,” said Frank Ward, an NMSU professor of agricultural economics and agricultural business in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences who specializes in water resource management.