The Agriculture Department on Wednesday announced a $280 million program to pay Texas producers seeing a shortfall in Rio Grande water deliveries from Mexico.
The Texas Agriculture Department will manage the payments to growers in southern Texas who have struggled to secure access to Rio Grande water for irrigation in recent years due to limited deliveries from Mexico.
Mexico is supposed to deliver 1.75 million acre-feet to the United States over a five-year period under a 1944 treaty, but has lagged in its deliveries during the current cycle, which ends in October. As of Saturday, it had only delivered 488,634 acre-feet, according to data from the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission.
Lower Rio Grande Valley growers were slated to lose an estimated $993.2 million last year due to irrigation water shortages, in large part driven by the lack of Rio Grande water deliveries, according to a report published by Texas A&M economists. As a lack of water access challenged South Texas sugar growers, the state's only sugar mill closed down in 2024.
“A lack of water has already ended sugarcane production in the Valley and is putting the future of citrus, cotton, and other crops at risk," Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a release. "Through this grant, USDA is expediting much-needed economic relief while we continue working with federal, state, and local leadership to push for long-term solutions that protect Texas producers.”
Farmers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley Water District who saw losses in water deliveries in calendar years 2023 and 2024 will be eligible for payments through the program.
The USDA release didn't say how the program is being funded.
In a statement, Texas Farm Bureau President Russell Boening applauded the funding, but added that "this assistance is only a short-term fix."
"It is imperative Mexico deliver the water it owes the United States," Boening said.
For more news, go to Agri-Pulse.com.
