- June 10, 2026
- By Kimbra Cutlip
A new study from the University of Maryland found that even moderate climate change will severely stress underground water supplies on the Eastern Shore during the summer months, and by 2100, soybean crops will need three to four times more water in July and August than rainfall will provide.
“Maryland's Eastern Shore is heading toward essential irrigation, not just supplemental irrigation anymore. By mid-century, Maryland's Eastern Shore soybean fields will need 37-38 inches of irrigation per season just to meet crop demand,” said Hemendra Kumar, precision agriculture specialist and Extension agent at UMD, and co-author of the paper published May 31 in the journal Agricultural Water Management.
Using climate models and crop water calculations, Kumar and coauthor Iolanda Borzì, a visiting scientist from University of Messina, Italy, estimated how much supplemental irrigation soybeans may require in Maryland under several future greenhouse gas emission scenarios.
The researchers found that soybean irrigation needs are already high in Maryland during the growing season, especially in the summer, and especially on the Eastern Shore where the flat terrain, sandy soil and other conditions lead to shallow roots and low moisture-holding characteristics.
While overall irrigation demand may not rise dramatically by the end of the century, the team found that water stress during July and August will triple or quadruple.
The primary driver of this projected water stress is expected to be rising evaporation, in which the atmosphere “pulls” more moisture from soil and plants because of hotter and drier conditions.
Kumar and his team suggest that to adapt to these future conditions local managers must change water permits, build bigger irrigation systems for summer peaks, and schedule watering based on daily evaporation rates.