‘Water is our most precious resource’: alfalfa farmers asked to give up crop amid megadrought in US south-west

Agriculture - mainly alfalfa - consumes 80% of the Colorado River's dwindling water supply, prompting calls for conservation efforts

On an early August morning in California's Imperial Valley, tractors rumble across verdant fields of alfalfa, mowing down the tall grass and leaving it to dry in shaggy heaps under the hot sun.

Here, in one of the oldest farming communities in the Colorado River basin, the forage crop is king. One out of every three farmed acres in the valley is dedicated to growing alfalfa, which dries into a high-protein hay commonly used as food for livestock.