Price tag of drought is rising, UC Davis report finds

[SeanO]

But not all is doom and gloom. Looks like our state's Ag output is actually doing quite well, all things considered.

Take care,

Drought will cost California agriculture an estimated $1.8 billion in lost economic production this year, say researchers from the University of California Davis.

And the total economic effect is estimated at $2.7 billion, including a loss of 10,100 seasonal jobs. That figure has grown from an estimated loss of $2.2 billion due to drought in 2014.

The estimates come in a report released today by researchers at the university who study water and agricultural economics. The research was funded by the state Department of Food and Agriculture.

Despite the fourth year of severe drought, the state’s ag industry remains strong, the study found. California agriculture is has a value of $46 billion annually.

“We’re getting by remarkably well this year -- much better than many had predicted -- but it’s not a free lunch”

Article is here: http://www.bizjournals.com/sacrament...is-report.html

[Darian]

Yep!!.... The report sounds good and tends to confirm what Thornton was saying in the thread on needing a better system of allocating Water. One thing he didn't mention was the amount of money claimed as insurance seems so low in relation to the total revenues. Probably because fallowed land isn't covered by crop insurance.

I'm curious about the estimated potential loss of 100,000 seasonal jobs, given that the 400,000 seasonal jobs filled during prior drought years occurred when land was fallowed. Does it mean that there will more acreage fallowed this year than last??? (The state tracks seasonal AG employment and their info tends to indicate that it always seems to remain at a relative stable level unless AG land is not usable; too wet or fallowed)

[SeanO]

I should have linked to the original UCD article, Darian. I get these news feeds and they almost always make it difficult to find the original source (or for whatever reason they don't link to it- arghh).

Lots of data in here probably about the numbers of jobs and so on: https://watershed.ucdavis.edu/news/2...remains-robust

I haven't dug into it yet.

Best,