A Producer-Led Framework to Assess Water Sustainability in Agriculture: The NISA Example

The trajectory of human population growth is often in stark contrast with decreasing natural resources needed to support that population. The national and global needs for food, feed, fiber and energy continue to increase relative to water availability and provide a prime example of increasing demands on limited resources. Similar resource constraints have been observed in industrial sustainability, hence the commonly used saying, “measurement equals management.” Unlike industrial efforts, agriculture has largely failed in “measurement” efforts, and, as such, it has proven difficult to capture and communicate changes in economic, environmental and social sustainability over time. The National Initiative for Sustainable Agriculture (NISA) provides a reasonable mechanism for agricultural producers to document advancements along the sustainability continuum and communicate improvements in resource use, such as water, throughout the supply chain.