drought

Peter Glieck, a founder of the think tank Pacific Institute, is blunt: California leaders made "a big mistake" earlier this year when they removed a requirement to cut water use by 25 percent, says the New York Times. Conservation during June, July and August was lower than during the summer of 2015 and the state is in the fifth year of drought.

In Nevada, the nation’s driest state, a five-year drought has emptied lakes and stalled rivers. Reservoir levels have plummeted and Lake Mead, the primary water source for Las Vegas, is at its lowest point since the Hoover Dam was constructed in the 1930s — just 1,073 feet above sea level. But while the entire state is struggling with the lack of water, perhaps those suffering the most are Native American tribes, says National Geographic.

Africa accounts for 28 of the 36 countries worldwide that need food aid, says the FAO in its quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report. Drought reduced harvests in North Africa and in southern Africa, more than offsetting improvements in East and West Africa and pulling the continent's grain output to a below-normal level.

Climate change could “cut the global area suitable for coffee production by as much as 50 percent by 2050,” largely because of drought and higher temperatures, says a report by the Climate Institute. Of the 25 million coffee farmers around the world, many are small landholders living in countries that are among the most vulnerable to climate change, including Vietnam, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Major retailers like Starbucks have already warned that their customers could see supply shortages, according to the Climate Institute.

California is the U.S. leader in both dairy and almond production, and it illustrates the rise in popularity of almond milk while Americans are cutting back on milk from dairy cows, says Bloomberg. With a bit of a push from the multi-year drought, some dairy farmers are converting their fields to almond groves for a higher return per acre.

Despite forecasts of bountiful harvests and a global grain glut, lower harvests of corn, wheat and sugarcane as a result of severe weather in southern Africa are pushing up prices for Zambia's staple foods, Reuters reports.

In the arid West, pioneering California farmers are using drones to add another layer of precision to their use of irrigation water, says Associated Press. One of the pioneers, Cannon Michael, of Bowles Farming Co. in Los Banos, has mounted a thermal camera on a drop to spot leaks from underground irrigation pipes — color variations indicate different amounts of moisture in the soil.

The U.S. Northeast, home to 175,000 farms, is under the worst drought in more than a decade, says the NPR blog The Salt. "Many fields are bone dry," says NPR, "and that has many farmers thinking about how to manage their land, their animals and the water that is there."

The fifth year of drought in California will cost the agricultural sector $603 million in lower crop revenue, higher costs of pumping water, and lost jobs, says a report by UC-Davis. "Agriculture in California remains strong, with moderate growth in value, and in some cases employment, despite four years of dry conditions," says a summary by the team of five researchers.

“I like people to be able to see with their own eyes that the state is not out of water because of lack of rainfall or snow pack,” Johnny Amaral, manager of California’s Westlands Water District, told the LA Times, after inviting the newspaper to tour the Westland facilities.

Water efficiency projects sound like a win-win for western farmers and the environment. But most of the money — including the $50 million recently pledged by the U.S. Department of Interior and the USDA — spent trying to save water on farms fail to take human nature into account and may make the problem worse.

Even during four years of the worst drought in state history, California has seen total farm earnings increase 16 percent and farm employment rise 5 percent. “Both wages and employment in agriculture increased annually from 2012 to 2015, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, reaching $12.7 billion and 421,213 jobs in 2015 …”

The worst drought in 35 years in southern Africa will imperil the food supply of 40 million people until next March, when crops planted in coming months are ripe for harvest, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. "Widespread crop failure has exacerbated chronic malnutrition in the region," said FAO, which appealed for $109 million to equip farmers and grazers ahead of the growing season.

Farmers in the arid Southwest are turning to aquaponics, an indoor system that combines hydroponics with fish farming to conserve water and use fish excrement to nourish plants, according to The Guardian.

Water levels in the aquifer underlying eastern Idaho are plummeting, so state officials have proposed creation of the East Snake Plain Aquifer groundwater management area, says The Associated Press. The result would be a plan that parcels out water to farmers and other users in predictable amounts rather than abrupt cutbacks when the holders of senior rights to the water claim their share.

With the largest reverse-osmosis desalination plant in the world, Israel is now the only country in the Middle East to have a water surplus, says Ensia. But if other countries take Israel's cue, all that extra water could mean less fighting.

The U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to finally hear a lawsuit between Texas and New Mexico over water rights to the Rio Grande, says The Texas Tribune. Three years ago, the Lone Star state alleged that New Mexico farmers were taking more than their fair share of the river’s water. Now a court-appointed special master, Gregory Grismal, has released a 273-page report recommending that the court ignore New Mexico’s request to drop the suit.

Unlike other countries, including the United States, Australia does not provide subsidized insurance against drought. A newly released study, commissioned by the state of New South Wales after three years of drought across the nation's East coast, rejected any change in policy, says Reuters.