Stop Demonizing Almonds - Says expert

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We have seen the real cause of the California drought, and it's one crunchy inch tall. One gallon of water to grow a single nut? BAN THEM ALL, writes everyone. But almond outrage is misplaced. We shouldn't stop eating any fruit or vegetable due to how much water it takes to grow it. Especially when there actually is a crop that's stealing California's water.

Read this article :

http://gizmodo.com/seriously-stop-demonizing-almonds-1696065939

3 Answers

  3. If really to get a nut of almond we use 1 gallon of water, what is the need of of 1kilo ? According to (http://gizmodo.com/seriously-stop-demonizing-almonds-1696065939), one ounce of almonds is about 23 almonds . That’s 23 gallons of water per ounce. Calculation done: toproduce 1 kilo of almonds(33 ounces) 766 gallons are used. This is catastrophic! 2836 litters of water per kilo of almonds? I arid regions ou south Tunisia we grow rain fed almonds with 300mm annual rainfall, the yield is not fantastic for plantations with 500 trees per hectare. As specialist of irrigation and water resources management, It is possible to reduce the necessary water(in irrigated almonds growing) to produce 1 kilo of almonds. This is possible if we reduce the part of the irrigation water delivered to the tree specially by evaporation. I have been in California last year to see the impact of the drought on all kinds of crops including almonds, I have seen the hudreds of acres with almonds, pistchio, grape, mangoes, etc...I discovered onother scale of growing and another scale of loosing water by evaporation! The top irrigation technology is drip irrigation. Even with this system there is a lost by evaporation of 30 till 70% of the water(depending on the season). To avoid this lost by evaporation, we invented, tested and validated at field level a new underground irrigation technology: the buried diffuser. This technology,available since 2013, allows for trees crops growing : great water saving 60 till 70% less water then drip irrigation,60 till 90% less energy than drip irrigation(it work with gravity), minimum50% less fertilisers than drip irrigation, zero weeds . the buried diffuser allows also, in many situations(depth of soil: 150 cm; soil containg 10% of clay) , to irrigate only 1 time till 4 times per year! All that is not a drean, it is reality. Back to the Almonds, we think that with the buried diffuser it is possible to use only 200 gallons of water to produce 1 kilo of almonds?!. For further discussions, contact me at: bchahbani@chahtech.com or chahbani.bellachheb@gmail.com About the buried diffuser follow this link: www.chahtech.com