California rice fields become fallowed due to drought

In the early hours of a cold fall morning, thousands of birds would sit in the puddles of water in the empty rice fields just outside the Sacramento Valley.

There isn't a single bird that can be seen in many of the fields this year. There are no plants. The fields are empty and bone dry. They have become fallowed. The streams of water that once flowed to allow the beavers and deer feed and drink are gone. The ground looks like slabs of cracked concrete.

Economists and farmers warn that there could be severe environmental and economic consequences that extend beyond these dry fields that farmers are challenged with.

California is experiencing the driest three-year period since the late 1800 s. Even with the recent rain and snowfall along the Sierra Nevada Mountains, farmers aren't holding their breath for this winter and rainy season to end the drought.

Rice farmer Sean Doherty said as he looked at his empty rice fields, "I don't know that I've ever seen this, it's unprecedented." Doherty would typically farm about 5,000 acres of rice in a normal year. He was only able to farm about 700 acres this year because he didn't have enough water.

Doherty is beginning to notice the ecological impacts of the drought. He said he would see the birds, deer, and other animals on his farm every morning. It is rare if he sees one.

In a new report prepared for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the state s irrigated farmland shrunk by 752,000 acres of farmland, or nearly 10%. Doherty is one of the many farmers who were forced to scale back.

Doherty said you hope for the best and plan for the worst.

A combined loss of $3 billion has resulted in $3 billion in revenue over the past two years. In 2022 alone, $1.7 billion was lost, or about 4.3% of the GDP.

Other sectors in the agriculture industry have had significant losses as well. In the year 2022, $3.5 billion was lost in gross revenue for processing and purchasing agricultural products.

Everything from the milk industry around to almonds has been impacted, UC Davis Agricultural Economics Professor Daniel Sumner said. Sumner helped prepare the report for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. He says consumers could see the prices go up in stores for certain products, like rice Doherty grows.

The rice crop in California was only half of a normal harvest season. There were two hundred and seventy thousand acres harvested compared to the usual 550 thousand.

It has an effect on the rest of the economy as well, and it is not just the farmers or the farm workers. It's the grocery stores, all the way to the economy, according to Sumner.

Farmers like Doherty who plan to grow next year's crop are worried if it will be worth it because of the drought.

I don't know what's going to happen, I don't know that anybody does, obviously mother nature does, but she is not talking, he said.