Millennium Drought: Australian researcher shares lessons of what winegrape growers 'down under' face in a prolonged drought

摘要

WATER has always been a scarce commodity for grow-ers in the winegrape-growing regions of South Australia. Because of that, the growers there were early adopters of drip irrigation in the 1980s, says Michael McCarthy, the principal viticulturist at the South Australian Research and Development Institute. In fact, growers were able to cut usage from an annual 4 feet of water, which was thought to be the proper amount for winegrape vines, to less than 20 inches in many cases, he said.