California Drought Causing Negative Effects

According to global reports, the California drought is causing a huge number of side effects and promoting a number of measures that will take care of the extreme drought situation taking place. Due to this, more ‘mom and pop’ types of producers who do not have a large amount of money are now unsuccessful due to these sudden changes. Not every agricultural grower is able to pay to bring in higher priced waters. Therefore, these droughts are having an adverse effect on productivity rates. Additionally, the policies around water establishments are intricate. Hence, it becomes difficult for all Californian producers to manage the situation properly.

Another effect of the drought is on California row crops, such as melons or tomatoes. Farmers are trying to keep their permanent crops alive, whether it’s almonds, pistachios, wine and table grapes and more that’s in the ground for a number of years. Hence, this means that the drought will eventually hit these row crops. This is a reason why farmers are scrambling to save their investments direly. Moreover, if the entire crop is not affected, then it is absolutely evident that the top layer of the fruit or vegetable will stand destroyed.

Conrado notes that some growers earlier this year had counted on, for example, a 10 per cent water allocation only to find out they were allotted only five per cent during the drought. Then they saw a further cut to that allocation, in some cases down to zero. There is a need to create a planting map of the ranch and submit it to the county before the end of the calendar year and then there is always the concern have to blow the whole thing up and start over wondering: how much water am I really going to get? Where can I apply that water to what crops?

Article by: Hari Yellina (Orchard Tech)