Farmers save water, money

Drip irrigation is one method farmers could use to reduce water use and increase profits.

Water efficiency techniques help farmers increase their gross profits, according to a new study by Oakland, Calif.-based Pacific Institute.

The analysis comes from a report focused on the use of water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which aims to inform Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Blue Ribbon Task Force working on Delta issues.

The Delta provides water to 7 million irrigated acres, or 80 percent of California’s 9 million irrigated acres in what is known as the Central Valley, says Juliet Christian-Smith. According to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s office, the Delta provides water for 25 million people and supports approximately $400 million of the state’s economy.

It is also a water system under siege, according to the report. Four recent water shortages and legally mandated pumping restrictions in the Central Valley have already resulted in total farm losses totaling as much as $245 million through the middle of Summer 2008, just one year after record farm production was reported in several counties throughout the region, according to the report.

The Pacific Institute examined four methods of reducing water use that are already in use by some farmers in the Central Valley. Christian-Smith said that using conservative estimates of adoption rates for “Modest Crop Shifting,” “Smart Irrigation Scheduling,” Advanced Irrigation Management” and “Efficient Irrigation Technology,” could yield savings of between 600,000 and 3.4 million acre-feet of water annually or as much as could be stored by three to 20 dams each capable of holding 174,000 acre-feet of “new water, the report says. More savings could be realized through more drastic shifts.

Shifting of crops, which could conservatively account for more than 1 million acre-feet of water saved each year, would not be as drastic as it might sound, according to Christian-Smith. Overall, the Pacific Institute models shifted acreage from field crops to row and specialty crops on just 15 percent of the valley’s land, a shift that is inline with the amount of acreage that has shifted naturally since 1980.

Such a shift could also increase farms’ profitability, says Christian-Smith. Field crops have a gross product value of $524 per acre, while vegetables or row crops can cash in at $5,124 per acre, Christian-Smith says.