Inland-area farmers have thrived during the drought thanks to Colorado River water, while growers elsewhere in California have lost crops and fallowed fields.  

The drought is expected to cost the state $2.7bn in agriculture losses this year, but farmers in eastern Riverside County are faring well, thanks to the Colorado River, a new economic forecast says.

The worst effects are hitting farmers in the Central Valley, who have been forced to draw from groundwater basins, threatening to overdraw underground reserves.

The study by the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis said drought-related farm impacts are expected to be 30 percent worse than last year.

The agriculture industry is expected to lose 21 000 jobs, while an estimated 542 000 acres have been fallowed.

But in the Coachella Valley $730 million in agriculture revenue was generated last year, up 9 percent from the year before.

More than two-thirds of the 66 000 acres of farmland there is irrigated with Colorado River, the Coachella Valley Water District says.

Central Valley farmers rely on rivers supplied by snow melt, which was a fraction of normal this year. Water rights for thousands of farmers have been curtailed by the state, forcing some to stop irrigating and others to turn to well water.

But in the Coachella Valley, less than 20 percent of farmers use wells and usage is dropping. Predictions are that Colorado River deliveries are secure up until 2017.

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com