California agriculture takes $1.2-billion hit during drought, losing 8,700 farm jobs, researchers find
2 years, 9 months ago

California agriculture takes $1.2-billion hit during drought, losing 8,700 farm jobs, researchers find

LA Times  

Severe drought last year caused the California agriculture industry to shrink by an estimated 8,745 jobs and shoulder $1.2 billion in direct costs as water cutbacks forced growers to fallow farmland and pump more groundwater from wells, according to new research. If the state doesn’t get more precipitation in March, Medellín-Azuara said, “we are likely to see more severe cutbacks from water agencies to agriculture this year, and then the impacts can intensify.” The past year was one of the driest and hottest on record in California, and comes during a larger 22-year megadrought in the West that research shows is being worsened by global warming. “Overall, we are weathering the drought and adapting to future droughts as well.” Representatives of the agriculture industry said the economic losses, as well as the federal government’s announcement of minimal water deliveries, point to a need for California to build infrastructure projects to capture and store more water, both in groundwater basins and aboveground reservoirs. He compared groundwater to a savings account, saying the state has cut surface water deliveries — like reducing deposits to a checking account — while also cutting “our ability to go to our fallback, or our savings account.” Merkley pointed out that California voters in 2014 passed a $7.5-billion water bond measure, Proposition 1, and some of the funds are for infrastructure and water storage projects.

History of this topic

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