processes” to address drought impacts, and directs state officials to expedite vol- untary water transfers. Last month, the state water board informed state and federal water projects that they had allegedly “violated terms and conditions of their water rights” re- lated to delta outflow requirements. Chris Scheuring, California Farm Bureau senior counsel, said the letter to water project operators warns that “they must meet certain flow objectives spe- cific to water quality and fish, and as a consequence it appears that they’re not going to be able to deliver water to their customers, even at the 5% level.” “It’s one of those existential years in California, when we’ve got an extreme drought and farmers are going to be hurting all over the place,” Scheuring said. “Some folks may be able to default to groundwater, but it’s going to be a very, very tough year for farmers. This really brings home the fact that the state has been too slow in building additional infrastructure that could have captured more water in previous wet years.” Hartwig, who serves as president of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, said the almond trees that were removed last week had plenty of production left, but the farmdecided to push themout, even forgoing this year’s crop. “We pulled water off a month ago, when the situation became clear that there wasn’t going to be any water in the system,” he said, adding that the potential Shortages Continued from Page 1
Even crops that mature to harvest will likely be affected by lack of water. At the Almond Board of California, Gabriele Ludwig, director of sustain- ability and environmental affairs, said almond trees have already set their crop for this year, but dry conditions will affect kernel size—and any damage will carry over to affect next year’s crop. Ludwig said factors in addition to shortage of surface water and preparing for SGMA may be motivating farmers to remove trees: Almond prices have been low for about a year, she said, pointing out that last year’s 3 billion pound crop was the largest ever. “It is the first time in20 years that prices are low, and that is a difference in terms of being able to pay for water,” Ludwig said. “In the last drought, the value of al- monds allowed growers, up to a point, to pay for additional water.” Almond demand remains strong, she said, adding that despite trade tariffs, the sector has experienced some of the larg- est volumes of almonds shipped toexport markets of China and India, and that in the U.S—the largest single market for al- monds—consumptionhas nearly tripled. To increase irrigation reliability state- wide, Ludwig said the state should invest in additional water infrastructure, such as buildingreservoirsand improvingconvey- ance systems,with irrigationdistricts con- tinuingwork toenhanceoverall efficiency. “Given the regulatory frameworks between unimpaired flows, SGMA and (Endangered Species Act) impacts on the delta, and the fact that we haven’t seen fundamental efforts to address the improvements that could be made to ameliorate some of the impacts, it is very frustrating,” Ludwig said. (Chr i s t ine Souza i s an ass i s tant editor of Ag Alert. Shemay be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)
Lack of water this year—and the likelihood of future water shortages— forces farmers to remove productive trees, such as this Fresno County al- mond orchard.
“to save water for other ranches.” Plumlee said the farm acquires water from the CVP Friant Division, and ex- pects to receive a 20% supply. “During the lastdrought,wewere forced toremoveoldacreageandredevelopsome other acreage, and it was very impactful. We sawsupplementalwaterbeingveryex- pensive, and we’re seeing a similar trend this drought,” said Plumlee, who pointed out that supplementalwater, if available, is priced at $1,500-$2,000 per acre-foot. “In the short term, the cost of supple- mentalwater is sohigh thatwe’rebetteroff just pushing (trees) now and starting our SGMA implementation plans well ahead of schedule,”he said. “We’vealreadymade our list of theacres thatwe think thatwe’re going tobe forced to lose throughSGMA.” Beyond 2021, Plumlee said he is con- cerned about additional dry years and impacts to farming as growers prepare for SGMA implementation. “If this dry winter leads to another dry winter, and we get another zero or a 5% year, then I think you’ll see another big slug of ground go out,” he said. “You cou- ple this drought with SGMA and it’s a real catastrophe. It’s not something that you canmanage your way out of.”
cost of supplemental water, combined with other production costs, contributed to the decision. “There’s very little water available on the market, so even if you could get wa- ter, it would be exorbitantly expensive,” Hartwig said. Also looming is SGMA, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which requires local agencies to bring critical- ly overdrafted groundwater basins into balance. Looking ahead, Hartwig said, “We’re trying to evaluate what’s the ideal crop mix for that and what can we pos- sibly support with groundwater in the years when there is no surface water.” Other farmers are having tomake sim- ilar calculations. Jared Plumlee of Booth Ranches, a grower, packer, shipper of citrus with farmland in Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties, said he harvested about 80 acres of citrus a month and a half early,
Farm Bureau assesses impact of governor’s drought actions
Actions inawideneddrought emergen- cyorder issuedbyGov.GavinNewsomwill provide some short-termbenefit through voluntary water transfers and exchanges inparts of drought-strickenCalifornia, the California FarmBureau said, while the or- ganizationexpressedconcernabout emer- gency powers granted to the state water boardandre-emphasized theneed for sig- nificant, long-term investments to secure future food production in the state. Newsomplaced an additional 39 coun- ties under drought emergency Monday; the governor also proposed a four-year, $5.1 billion series of investments intend- ed to address drought infrastructure, pre- paredness and response. CaliforniaFarmBureauPresident Jamie Johansson said the organization appre- ciates “any effort the state can make to provide more water in the short term to farmers who need it.” At the same time, he said, “we must not lose sight of exist- ing water-rights priorities and the need to balance supplies for food production, fisheries and cities.” By widening the drought emergen- cy, Johansson said, “the governor has recognized the reality facing much of
rural California: Our future is not guar- anteed. By proposing to invest in canal repairs and other projects, he has shown a willingness to address part of that lon- ger-termproblem.” But, he said, “where are the projects the voters invested in when they approved a water bond seven years ago?” Johansson urgedthestate torealize“thatbuilding, not just planning” will be needed to preserve Californians’ quality of life. Inaddition to longer-terminfrastructure needs, he added, “we also need to ensure familyfarms—andthepeople,communities andbusinesses that relyon them—are able to survive this year. We urge the governor to engage with family farmers, at the local level, tounderstandhowbest toensurethat our farmsandthefoodtheyproducewillbe available toCalifornians for years tocome. “Water to farmsmeans food for families, jobs for farmemployeesandmuch-needed help for rural economies,” he said. “With predictions that climatechangewill leadto even less certaintyabout precipitationand watersupplies,Californiamustcommit toa full-scale program to increase storage, en- hance efficiency and create new supplies throughwater recyclinganddesalination.”
May 12, 2021 Ag Alert 17
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