Some solutions go beyond individual farmers' choices. In the long-term, California must continue being inventive in keeping its land resilient to drought. "The growers wouldn't be doing this if there wasn't a demand." ![]() "The consumer wants these products, and California is one of the few states that can produce them nine months out of the year," says Michael Cahn of the University of California's Cooperative Extension in Monterey. And other economic sectors, not counted in the two percent, are propped up by food growing: trade, manufacturing, tourism, food service. Agriculture employs about 3 percent of the state's workforce and counts for about 2 percent of the state's gross domestic product. Farming is core to California's sense of itself-and to its economy. Any interest in prickly pear cactus, carob, or saltbush anyone? Didn't think so.īy and large, then, the state continues to pump out water-hungry crops like almonds, walnuts, raspberries and asparagus. But farmers can't deny the reality of California's agriculture economics: They'll continue grow what consumers will pay them to grow. So far, when farmers have cut back on irrigated acres, they've gotten rid of field crops like rice, cotton, hay, and corn silage-things more easily grown in other parts of the country. And some farmers are increasing on-farm storage-adding additional ponds as reservoirs.Īnother option might be to replace water-guzzling crops with those that don't need much water. Adopting these steps could save 6 million acre-feet during a dry year, according to a study by the Pacific Institute. Cutting back on watering during drought-tolerant growth stages can save water and improve crop quality or yield. But it's also depleted the soil-those steps tend to kill the microbes that build organic material and make it sponge-like.įarmers also can be more scientific about when and where they apply water. Over the past century, US agriculture has pushed itself to produce higher and higher yields by carefully engineering its plots: building larger farms with more advanced mechanics and increasing reliance on fertilizers, weedkillers, and pesticides. In Templeton, California, Mary Morwood Hart is using dry farming on her Grenache, Mourvedre, and olive trees, carefully cultivating the soil on her 20 acres so it can sustain growth without water. It's even possible to farm essentially without water-growing produce by using the water and fertilizing nutrients already in the soil. New irrigation techniques have made it possible to increase yields with less water than farmers once thought they needed. But there's a limit to what they can eke out of the soil with the water governor Jerry Brown has given them to work with. ![]() ![]() Farmers want to be good stewards of the land by helping save water-it is, after all, what sustains them. Agriculture accounts for about 80 percent of the state's water consumption, and in the midst of a historic drought, it is the largest potential source of water savings. Think of the process as it exists right now - build a farm plot, build a still, build a means of carrying water, find some flora to grow, plant it, fuel your still 1-1 (fuel to ‘drink’ ratio), fill your container (max 5 ‘drinks’ with a clay pot), and water your plot (figure 8 ‘drinks’ to fully water - nobody uses stick farm plots).California's Central Valley farmers have a problem. Lets pool together our creative and constructive potential solutions for this problem! From simple tweaks of existing in-game items to full out development of brand new systems, the more options we can present the more likely it is that any of them will end up in the game. Having dumped a LOAD of hours into this game, I would wager that the masses are in agreement of this statement: “Keeping up with watering farm plots is a tedious chore.”
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