{"id":4752,"date":"2015-02-02T13:11:53","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T18:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=4752"},"modified":"2025-06-11T13:01:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T17:01:27","slug":"how-nature-can-protect-farmers-against-droughts-and-floods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2015\/02\/02\/how-nature-can-protect-farmers-against-droughts-and-floods\/","title":{"rendered":"How nature can protect farmers against droughts and floods"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"medium_15820852967\"<\/a>Wacky weather isn\u2019t just a fluke. According to the National Climate Assessment<\/a> (NCA), extreme weather events are becoming more common and are likely to increase in the future, which poses challenges for farmers and communities.<\/p>\n

Traditional ways of responding to weather crises, such as building higher flood walls and digging deeper wells are expensive and often fail.<\/p>\n

The good news is that farmers are increasingly turning to more natural solutions and practices<\/a>, often referred to as \u201cgreen infrastructure,\u201d that use nature to reduce the impacts of both floods and droughts.<\/p>\n

Green infrastructure is also needed to reduce fertilizer pollution and restore the Gulf of Mexico dead zone to safe levels, as a new study published today in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association<\/a> (JAWRA) reports.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Benefits of green infrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n

Green infrastructure helps keep water on the landscape, both preventing it from rushing downstream to create a flood and keeping it available on the farm (or in underground reservoirs known as aquifers) to support agricultural production and downstream drinking water supplies in case of drought.<\/p>\n

Practices at the field-level include:<\/p>\n