Friday, May 14, 2021

Drought halting crops in California

Drought still covers the entire state of California, with areas of exceptional drought expanding in the southern and eastern Sierra due to very poor snowpack. 


One organic grower has already plowed down his asparagus crop and others are trying to decide whether to plant crops.


Snowpack runoff is forecasted to be well below normal and reservoir storage levels at Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville are 48 per cent and 41 per cent of average, which is bad news for farmers who need irrigation this year.

 

Federal and state water projects say they will provide little to no irrigation water to many agricultural customers, so farmers must calculate how much food they can grow with their limited supplies.