The California Farm Water Coalition (CFWC) has detailed how limited water supplies are affecting agricultural production. Dry conditions in California have resulted in a decline in acreage of several crops due to significantly reduced water availability. Approximately two million acres of irrigated farmland has had a reduction of 95 percent of its water supply for the year. That amounts to about one out of every four acres receiving only five percent of its intended supply of water. Another one million acres have had water supplies cut by 80 percent.
CFWC compares current conditions to those experienced in 2015, which resulted in the fallowing of more than half a million acres and an economic loss of $2.7 billion. Major reservoirs are currently storing over a million acre-feet of water less than the levels recorded at the end of March in 2015. CFWC has developed a map detailing the impact that the lack of rain has had on water supplies throughout California.
Listen to the radio report below.
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