Articles Tagged with ''water''

The Bureau of Reclamation only plans to allocate 50,000 acre-feet of water to Klamath Basin farmers this year, a drought-inspired move that has producers concerned about the 170,000 acres of cropland they hoped to irrigate.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture's Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation announced yesterday it has selected 11 organizations to receive a combined $5 million in Water Efficiency Technical Assistance Funding.

In water-strapped states like Texas, producers are using irrigation to reap the benefits of cover crops. Producers in other states, while not directly irrigating cover crops, see a benefit in the water requirements of their cash crops. 

Farmers and water managers across the West are bracing for another potentially dry year, even as they wait for rain and snow that could help alleviate drought conditions. But with climate change reducing annual snowpack and the water it promises, the Bureau of Reclamation is in search of new and more accurate forecast tools.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross recently returned from the COP26 climate conference in Glasglow, Scotland, where she talked about California’s climate-smart ag programs and met with counterparts from around the world. She spoke with Agri-Pulse about her impressions.

The rainy season is kicking off with enough moisture to ease some Californians’ water worries, but the long-term outlook for agriculture remains one that calls upon farmers to maximize “crop per drop.” In the case of almonds, one of the state’s most profitable crops, it could take decades to transition from existing trees to others that can achieve similar yields with less water.

The latest assessment of major food, beverage and agriculture companies’ attention to water issues such as scarcity and pollution shows more are taking action.

Agri-Pulse is hosing a free webinar, “Future directions: Exploring farmers' climate-smart tools,” on September 10, 2021, at 11 a.m. CT. This event is sponsored by the Water Grows Initiative.

A new water trading and accounting platform aimed at easily matching those who need water with those who have it would also give Groundwater Sustainability Agencies near real-time data for maintaining accurate water accounting and that, in turn, would help them comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.