Workshop 5: Sunday February 20, 2010 (Full Day)

Agricultural Landscapes as Production Areas

for Plentiful, High Quality Water

This workshop will prepare participants to consider water as a primary commodity produced on agricultural landscapes.  A community of scholars focusing on  contemporary agricultural water issues at the University of Illinois College of Aces will present the results of a year long deliberation that addresses the breadth of  agricultural water quantity and quality issues  into a contemporary research context.  This research agenda will serve as an outline for the day’s deliberations.

Leading scholars will present the state of knowledge in critical topic areas and set the stage for discussion on research approaches needed to help agricultural communities around the world create policies and practices necessary to sustain agricultural production while providing sufficient high quality water to communities downstream. 

Topic areas will include:

• Mitigating pathogens from confined feeding operations
• Drainage modifications necessary to sustain the hydrograph
• Management practices required to remove  nutrients from agricultural watersheds
• Water policy structures needed to balance water demands for food, fiber, fuel and drinking water
• Research design considerations necessary to address agricultural water issues around the world

Participants will be engaged in a dialogue designed to explore research approaches necessary to holistically address the complexity of water quality and quantity challenges facing our agricultural communities around the world.