UC Davis Study Finds Drought Impact On Farmers Harsh, But Softening
UC DAVIS (CBS13) — California's drought is less severe and widespread than it was a year ago, according to a new UC Davis study, but that news is also coupled with a harsh reality for farmers.
The drought will cost farmers more than $600 million this year. It's a large number, but a fraction of the $2.7 billion hit to the farm economy in 2015.
While it's an improvement, they say there's still much more work to be done.
"It's still a significant drought, but it's much less severe than it was last year for most of the state," says Jay Lund with the center for watershed sciences.
It's encouraging news compared to last year.
"Last year in the drought, we had an additional half a million acres of land fallowed just because of the drought. We're estimating that this year, just because of the drought, we'll have an additional 80,000 acres of land that has been fallowed," he said.
His team of scientists say that shift is all thanks to some reasonably wetter winter and spring months. That couple with some adapting on the part of farmers across the state.
"About two-thirds of the shortage of surface water was made up for by pumping additional groundwater," he said.
But that effort still comes with a hefty price tag for the ag industry—$603 million according to researchers' economic analysis. Now Lund is hoping the state can do even better over next year, while being mindful that we are at the mercy of Mother Nature.
"In the long run, we're going to see some contraction in agriculture in some parts of the state because of this, particularly as we reduce some of the lower valued agriculture to sustain groundwater levels," he said.