The California Drought

You've probably read about it in the news, you've no doubt seen photos of the low water levels in some reservoir. In many communities people have been told to cut water usage, to forego things like watering their lawns or washing their cars. Let's take a quick look at where California's water goes.

An arm of Lake Oroville
A major supplier of water to California agriculture

There's a certain amount that flows through the state's rivers -- sometimes it's for the fish, sometimes to prevent salt water encroachment. Of the water used by the state, 80% goes to the $50 billion agricultural business.

One way to break that ag usage down is by crop usage. The highly profitable almonds and pistachios use a lot. Almonds alone use 10% of the agricultural water supply. Alfalfa and pasture land are the next biggest users meaning dairy and beef cattle. Next is rice. Vineyards are down the list, but still in the top ten for ag water usage.

Another way to look at it is by economic productivity. Vineyards bring in about $2,500 for every acre foot of water. Almonds and pistachios are good for $1,200, rice only $375, alfalfa just $175.

The biggest products in the $50 billion ag economy are dairy (over $6B), almonds (over $5B), wine and table grapes ($5B), beef cattle ($3.5B), and lettuce ($2.25B). Strawberries, tomatoes, flowers, walnuts, and hay round out the top ten.

Another crop, by far the largest in value and takes lots of water, is absent from this list. Yeah, marijuana. It's not clear how much water cannabis growing uses. I expect this is because it's just recently become legal and there's little data available.

Farmers are now seeing water restrictions in the Central Valley. Others are also seeing severe cutbacks, including those using the upper Russian River Valley that's hitting some vineyards. The good news is wine grapes can grow without water, you just don't get as large of a crop. Some vineyards are actually dry farmed. Wine grape farmers will probably get through this better than most other farmers.