SACRAMENTO—State authorities have no plans to mandate further water conservation efforts on farms even as Gov. Jerry Brown’s order that cities slash their water use by 25 percent has invited more scrutiny on agriculture.
Some environmental groups, news outlets and users of social media expressed astonishment last week that Brown’s drought-related water cutbacks mostly spared farmers. Administration officials have maintained that growers have already faced severe cutbacks which caused some 400,000 acres of farmland to be fallowed last summer.
Though political pressure is sure to mount as urban voters start feeling the drought’s impacts, state officials told the Capital Press they have no plans for more drastic measures such as requiring more widespread use of drip irrigation or dictating which crops can be grown in certain areas.
Instead, agencies will rely on a bevy of grants and education campaigns to encourage growers to keep moving to more drought-tolerant methods, the officials said.
“We really think the decision of which crop to grow is an individual decision that the grower makes based on a whole variety of reasons,” said Peter Brostrom, water use efficiency manager for the state Department of Water Resources. “We’re not trying to intrude into that area. We don’t see that as the role of the state to tell people what to grow.”
Likewise, the State Water Resources Control Board and California Department of Food and Agriculture aren’t considering imposing more stringent water-saving requirements on farms, their spokespeople said.
“I know we encourage” less water-intensive crops and irrigation systems, water board spokesman Tim Moran said. “As of now, we’re kind of depending on this water rights system.”
Environmental groups have long argued that the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is being destroyed by pumping to provide water for unsustainable orchard crops. Barbara Barrigan-Parilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, said Brown’s order “is sacrifice for 98 percent of Californians … for the top 1 percent of water and land barons on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.”
But valley growers’ groups counter that fisheries preservation efforts over the last 20 years had already caused their annual water allotments to be slashed before the drought left many farms with little or no surface water whatsoever.
Administration officials have steadfastly defended farmers since the Brown order, noting that growers provide most of the nation’s fruits and vegetables and aren’t using water frivolously.
“Over time, there have been great strides made in efficiency within the agricultural community,” state Food and Agriculture secretary Karen Ross said last week.
Among the various grant programs used by growers is the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program, in which the CDFA has provided some $9.4 million for more than 160 on-farm projects to improve irrigation systems. Ross said the program has saved about 317,000 acre-feet of water.
“We know that as we continue to make these kinds of investments, (farmers will) continue to provide food crops that are only grown in California,” she told reporters in a conference call.
Over the past 10 years, state agencies have given out about $40 million to agricultural water suppliers to make improvements in irrigation systems, Brostrom said. Last year, the state distributed $10 million in cap-and-trade receipts to growers to invest in improved irrigation systems, and there will be another $10 million this year, he said.
In addition, the $7.5 billion water bond passed by voters in November will provide $100 million for water-use efficiency projects on farms and in urban areas. And the University of California Cooperative Extension has made irrigation efficiency a key focus in recent years, training farmers in irrigation scheduling, deficit irrigation and how to interpret readings from pressure bombs to determine how much water their trees need.
For certain crops, requiring such systems as drip irrigation wouldn’t be practical, Brostrom said. For instance, while rice farms are known for their flooded fields, their actual consumption of water is comparable to other crops, he said.
Jeanine Jones, the DWR’s interstate resources manager and deputy drought manager, has said increasing vulnerability of water supplies could prompt some growers to voluntarily change what they plant. But state officials say they can trust farmers to make that choice.
“They will look at their water supply and make the best decisions possible,” Brostrom said.
Source: www.capitalpress.com