Commentary
California’s 30-year drought
By Don Gordon
Editor’s note: Gordon is president of the Agricultural Council of
California, which helps to represent the interests of the state’s
farmer-owned cooperatives.“If an issue affects California’s farmerowned
enterprises, the Ag Council is there,” says Gordon. Other
states, including parts of Texas and Florida, were also facing severe
droughts as of this writing in April.
alifornia water officials have proclaimed
2007-2009 as California’s worst drought in
150 years, bringing back memories of the
“dust bowl” conditions of the 1930s. While
there’s good reason for concern among the
state’s grower-owned cooperatives — which play such a vital
role in the state’s farm economy, producing everything from
oranges, to almonds, to raisins to milk and cotton — the
drought should be viewed in a broader context.
California is a big state with eight agricultural production
regions that differ in topography, temperature, rainfall, soil,
water, crops, environmental restrictions and degree of urban
encroachment. About 400 commercial crops are produced on
approximately 26 million acres (8 million of which are
irrigated).
Depending on the region, agricultural water is sourced
from rainfall, irrigation districts, groundwater and riparian
rights. The primary watersheds are in the northern third of
the state whereas 80 percent of the demand is in the lower
two-thirds of the state.
For the most part, agricultural water supplies remain
adequate. However, certain regions — such as the west side
of the San Joaquin Valley — are in dire straits. The U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation announced that farmers on the west
side of the valley would receive a zero-percent water
allocation, thus choking off water to thousands of acres of
newly planted almond trees and fallowing several 100,000
acres of row-crop land.
Farther south, acres of avocado trees in San Diego County
are being “stumped” (radically pruned) in order to reduce
water consumption. If the current dry spell extends
significantly beyond 2009, most of the other agricultural
regions will be severely impacted as well.
Notwithstanding the current situation, California farmers
have been enduring a virtual man-made drought for the past
30 years. Increased environmental, industrial, recreational
and urban demands driven by population growth have
inexorably squeezed agricultural water allocations. The
situation has been further exacerbated by federal court
decisions mandating strict enforcement of the Endangered
Species Act.
As a result, water supply, quality and cost have been major
factors in determining farmers’ decisions to employ watersaving
irrigation technologies and conservation practices long
before the 2007-2009 drought hit.
Due to the size and diversity of agriculture in California, it
is impossible to generalize about water use efficiency
practices. However, the following trends reflect what is
currently happening on California farms:
- Water cost is forcing lower value field crops to give way to
higher value permanent plantings. For example, from 1997-
2006, cotton acreage declined 68 percent (from 880,000 to
285,000 acres). During the same time frame, almond
acreage increased 45 percent (from 505,000 to 730,000
acres).
- A diversity of water-saving irrigation and recycling
technologies is being employed. For example, processing
tomato acreage (traditionally furrow irrigated), is
incorporating sub-surface drip irrigation technologies.
- Groundwater “banking” through voluntary, locally
organized districts is playing a vital role in providing
drought “insurance.” For example, the Kern Water Bank at
the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley has about 10
million acre-feet of storage capacity. During the current
drought, this subsurface reserve has provided much needed
relief to the local farmers who have switched their cropping
patterns to permanent plantings.
- Water transfers from the “haves” to the “have nots” are
more prevalent as the law of supply and demand increases
the value of water. If agricultural water users earn more
revenue from the sale of water to urban areas, crop
production will be curtailed to accommodate transfers.
The complex system of federal and state water projects
that served the California economy magnificently during the
latter part of the 20th century has been overtaxed by periodic
droughts and competing demands. For 30 years, lawmakers
have studied and debated — but failed to enact — measures
to improve our water supply and distribution system.
Although Mother Nature ultimately holds the trump
cards, the state’s water problems will only be solved if
political consensus can be achieved. In the meantime, the
quantity, quality, cost and legal sanctions associated with
water allocation and use will be increasingly problematic as
California’s population reaches 50 million by 2030.
Many of the fruit, nut and vegetable crops grown here
cannot be grown in other parts of the nation. Thus,
California’s water shortages have ramifications that extend
beyond our state’s borders into domestic and international
markets. For this reason California cooperatives and their
members will be actively engaged in the struggle to find
solutions to our water policy challenges.
