Study: saving water profitable

Farmers say efficiency doesn’t address existing storage problems

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press
September 12, 2008

SACRAMENTO - California farmers can grow more food more profitably if they switch to water-saving crops and change their irrigation practices in response to the state's ongoing drought, according to a study released Monday, Sept 8, but farmers are disputing some of the findings.

A report issued by the Oakland-based Pacific Institute says farmers in the Central Valley could save enough water to fill up to 20 new reservoirs by making several changes to curb wasted water. California agriculture groups say there are some good things in the report, but they have also been critical of some of its findings.

About a quarter of the state's water-intensive crops like rice, cotton, corn, wheat and alfalfa should give way to fruit and nut trees and row crops like tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and melons that can be more selectively irrigated, according to the report

Farmers should use drip or sprinkler irrigation systems instead of flooding grain fields, and crops should only be watered when they need it, a practice requiring more intensive soil and plant monitoring.

Farmers are trending toward many of the practices already, said Pacific Institute president Peter Gleick. But Gleick said the nonpartisan research organization's report is the first comprehensive look at how much water farmers could save.

"It's been a missing piece of the information in the California water debate," he said.

A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, issued a statement pointing out many of the efficiencies already in place on farms in the state.

"Over the last four decades, the amount of water used on California farms has remained relatively level while crop production has increased more than 85 percent in the same time period," Kawamura said. "In fact, California farms use water not just once but as many as eight times on crops."

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought in June because of two years of below-average rainfall, low snowmelt runoff, shrinking reservoir levels and a court-ordered water restriction to protect crashing fish populations.

Even if the rain and snow returns this winter, global climate change could mean less water in the future even as the state's population creeps toward 40 million.

Rising sea levels and earthquakes also threaten earthen levees that channel water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta east of San Francisco, a primary source of water for agriculture.

State water officials last week announced they will begin buying water from farmers in Northern California to sell to parched southern growers if supplies dry up next summer.

Against that backdrop, the institute's report estimates its recommendations could save up to 3.4 million acre-feet of water each year. An acre-foot of water is enough to cover an acre of land with a foot of water, or the amount of water used annually by an average family of four.

Just one of the proposals - watering crops only when they need it - would save enough water to fill Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park 10 times over, Gleick said.

Some of the report's recommendations have merit while others are unrealistic, said Mike Wade, executive director of the Farm Water Coalition, a Sacramento-based nonprofit education group.

"Farmers choose crops that they know they can sell," Wade said. "They shouldn't be arbitrarily asked to switch to different crops merely because they use less water."

Doug Mosebar, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, said people cannot ignore improvements farmers and ranchers have already made in water efficiency. He said many of the organization's members are reporting they have had to reduce production or abandon crops this year due to thin supplies and drought conditions.

"Any water policies that California adopts must recognize the importance of growing food to sustain our increasing population," Mosebar said. "Californians want more locally grown food, and our state has unique combinations of soil, climate and expertise that allow us to produce large amounts of top-quality food and farm products. That's an environmental resource, an economic resource and a national-security resource."

Wade also feared the institute wants to change historical water rights laws that protect farmer's supplies, though he welcomed the report's call for financial incentives for farmers who save water.

Gleick said the institute was careful to make recommendations that use readily available methods and technology and wouldn't harm the state's farmers. The report predicts that growing more high-value fruit and vegetable crops that consume less water could boost growers' productivity and profits.

Meanwhile, legislators are considering a bipartisan proposal made by Schwarzenegger and Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, along with agricultural and business groups, to restructure the state's water system.

The $9.3 billion plan includes building more reservoirs and possibly a canal routing fresh water around the brackish delta. The proposal has stalled as legislators remain stuck in budget negotiations more than two months into the fiscal year that began July 1.

The Pacific Institute study argues that the emphasis should be on saving water instead of new water projects that place a greater financial burden on the public. Changing farm practices would mean less need for groundwater or water that flows through the environmentally fragile delta to two-thirds of the state's population.

The report suggests the state could avoid planting 10 percent of its fields as one drought response. And it says California should consider retiring 1.5 million acres of poorly drained land in the San Joaquin Valley to save water and pollution cleanup costs.

But a representative of a 3,000-member trade group said that California could not effectively conserve water without also shoring up the state's water infrastructure, particularly in the delta.

"We're just not going to be able to crop-shift our way out of water shortages," said Wendy Fink-Weber, a spokeswoman for the Western Growers Association. "We think it's irresponsible to suggest it."

Jason Hempel, executive vice president of Western Growers, said some part of the report had merit, but other were troubling. He said farmers will continue to increase water efficiency. He called it the right thing to do from a business and environmental standpoint.

"But increased water-use efficiency is not a substitute for the needed improvements in water storage or conveyance," Hempel said in a written statement. "This need cannot be disregarded by any well-intentioned desires or dreams that conservation alone will answer California's water needs for decades to come."

Capital Press staff contributed to this report.