I sort of thought Almonds was _the_ reason we have migrating honeybees in the United States (or North America). In any case Zaiger Genetics have bred self-fertile Almonds that don't require bees. The trees are starting to be planted: http://www.growingproduce.com/nuts/self-fertile-almond-domin... Almond trees take a significant amount of time to mature. While orchards can be retrofitted the irrigation infrastructure is typically installed before the trees are planted. This means that the water use of an orchard currently producing almonds was probably designed in the 90s. All the new orchards I see being planted are using drip. In 2030 I suspect the water use per kg of almonds will be much lower than it is today.