Laying out drip line on pumpkins to save water
With all the hype about which crops use the most water over the past few months I thought it time to bring up the issue here. It does take a lot of water for farms like ours to grow all the produce that we do. We all need to eat, and food is a priority. We recently got a letter from the irrigation district which supplies us with water from Lake Berryessa. They basically said that because the farmers on our part of the canal were using less water they would be putting up the price to meet their financial goals. Many farmers are converting their field from wasteful flood irrigation to planting nut crops with micro sprinklers and saving a large amount of water. The problem here is that we are being penalized for saving water. The management of the irrigation district has made some poor financial decisions which has emptied their coffers, and they are now looking to rebuild them. They are saying our rates will go up 29% per year for the next five years. We already spend about $15,000 on water each year. I am afraid to do the math.