Droughts have increased globally by nearly 30 percent since the year 2000, posing one of the most significant threats to agricultural systems and costing billions in global economic losses, according to a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). But the use of\u00a0sustainable land management practices<\/a>, such as cover cropping as well as reduced tillage and improved irrigation techniques can help farmers regain control over their land, revitalize the soil, and mitigate the effects of drought.<\/p> The underlying cause of drought is rarely acknowledged, Roland Bunch, Founder and CEO of Better Soils, Better Lives, tells Food Tank. \u201cPeople don\u2019t understand that it\u2019s not because of a decrease in total rainfall.\u201d<\/p> While the climate crisis is making rain patterns more erratic and unpredictable, Bunch encourages people to look not up to the sky, but down at the ground. \u201cThe organic matter content of the soil has dropped from the normal 4 percent before the 1980s, to less than 1 percent today,\u201d he\u00a0writes<\/a>.<\/p> Organic matter is a critical component of water storage, he says. The U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)\u00a0estimates<\/a>\u00a0that for every 1 percent increase in organic matter, the amount of water available to plants increases by 25,000 gallons per acre. And just one pound of soil organic matter (SOM) can hold 20 pounds of water, according to the agency.<\/p> Dead vegetation and living roots, in combination with active worms and microbes, add carbon to the soil. These carbon compounds eventually bind together and form stable soil aggregates, which contain pore spaces that act like a sponge. Water can then trickle down and settle in this network of pores.<\/p>