UA researchers propose climate-smart desert food production
Pinal Central
Intercropping of agave and columnar cacti near Las Canoas in Jalisco, Mexico./Bill Hatcher
As the National Weather Service warns that a heat wave spreading across the southwestern United States is of a “magnitude rare, dangerous and deadly,” a team of scientists, led by the University of Arizona, has generated a new vision aimed at reducing climate disruptions to food security, human health and rural economies.
In a new article published in the journal Plants, People, Planet, 14 scientists from the U.S. Southwest and Mexico present a model for farming in arid landscapes that’s designed to benefit land health, reduce disease risks and restore economic well-being to desert communities.
The researchers propose restructuring desert food production from the ground up, by selecting wild food crops already adapted to extreme conditions. The desert food crops would be companion-planted or “intercropped” in designs that not only reduce heat stress in the plants, but among the farmworkers who care for them as well.
