Drought-Struck California Wants to Pay Farmers to Cut Plantings

(Bloomberg) -- California, gripped entirely in drought, proposed a $2.9 billion plan to pay farmers to reduce some of their planting in an effort to better manage water resources.

The voluntary agreement negotiated between government officials and some of the state’s major water agencies, which was announced on Tuesday, is also aimed at protecting salmon and other wildlife and ecosystems. 

California is facing more drought after devastating dryness last year raised river temperatures so much that endangered fish were at risk of cooking to death. Farmers in the state’s Central Valley, where a quarter of America’s food is grown, have struggled to keep crops alive, including garlic, wine grapes and almonds. 

“Every crop in that region from rice and tomatoes and grapes to irrigated pasture for livestock and tree nuts like almonds, pistachios and walnuts are going to be affected by this,”said Mike Wade, executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition in Sacramento.

The agreement could leave as much as 35,000 acres of rice unplanted in the northern Central Valley growing region. Rice is more flexible than some other crops for fallowing because it’s not required to be irrigated every year, said Wade.

California produces all of the U.S.’s domestically grown sushi rice, he said.

Doug Obegi, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, decried the proposal as a “backroom deal” that excluded indigenous communities, fishing groups and environmentalists from the talks. 

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