Drought takes toll on Northstate farmers

NORTHSTATE, Calif. — Rays of sunlight radiate across a small rice paddy as the loud rattling of a water pump starts trickling meager amounts of water allocated for the day’s crop.

Farmers usually use one of four methods of irrigation to maintain water efficiency: the sprinkler, drip, surface, and sub-irrigation.

Rice farmers are more likely to use the surface irrigation method because the water uses gravity to flow over the surface of a field and is the least energy cost out of the four irrigation methods.

Deputy Director of Public Works & Water Resources, Justin Jenson, shines some light on what the public could do to conserve water during these extreme drought conditions.

He says underground storage has become crucial to California’s water table as extreme drought conditions continue. It does this by being able to store water underground the quality of recharged surface water by percolating through the aquifers’ underlying sediments.

Water being stored underground and above ground are two important methods of storing water for further methods.

If farmers were to switch over to drip irrigation or micro drip, water storage could increase potentially.

By transforming a piece of ranch or grazing land, the water that is being stored has time to percolate down into the soil level as opposed to surface water storage. Storing water underground as opposed to storing it above the water has a chance to be more efficient over a longer period of time.

Rice production in the US contributes to more than $775 million to the state economy as stated in the USA Rice Federation report in 2019.

According to statistics from the University of California, Davis, California’s agricultural industry is seeing a decrease in agricultural exports and production.

Thousands of farmers are struggling to sow their seeds with limited amounts of water being allocated.

“In April 2022, the water districts serving Colusa County were given their final allocation for the 2022 growing season – 0.4-acre-feet per acre,” Colusa County officials said in a statement.

Colusa County in Northern California is the top producer of rice for the Sacramento Valley, historically growing more than 150,000 acres of rice in a normal year.

Colusa farmers will only be able to produce a fraction of their usual rice crop in 2022, costing farmers, workers and suppliers hundreds of million dollars states Colusa officials.

As reported by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA) and U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) as of August 2022, about 51% of the contiguous U.S. is still experiencing moderate to exceptional drought conditions.

“This allocation is not enough to support rice production, and estimates show that the Sacramento Valley will fallow 370,000 of 450,000 acres in the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors service area, primarily in Colusa and Glenn Counties. Currently, less than 7,000 acres are estimated to be planted in Colusa County, resulting in a direct financial loss to growers in excess of $270 million,” Colusa County officials said in a statement.

--

To report errors or issues with this article please email the editorial team.