Cultivate California educates residents about farms’ need for water

Informing Californians about farmers' stewardship of scarce water supplies is one goal of the Cultivate California campaign.

The campaign is aimed at educating Californians about the connection between consumers, the food they love, and the water needed to grow it, Mike Wade, the program’s executive director, said in a news release.

“Californians continue to get inundated with negative messages about farming,” Wade said in the release. “The Cultivate California program was designed to help bolster the natural support people have for agriculture and farms and to continue providing them with facts and information about the connection between their food and the water supply.”

The federal government reports that showed that nearly half of California – including the entire Central Valley – is in an exceptional drought as of mid-October, the release said.

Overall, 2021 has been the ninth driest year in California since accurate records began being kept 127 years ago. Shasta Lake, the state’s largest reservoir, is at 23% of capacity and Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir, is at 22% of capacity.

The National Weather Service currently forecasts that drought conditions are likely to continue in California as a weak La Niña effect will likely see storms diverted to the Pacific Northwest this winter. That is bad news for California agriculture, according to the release, and a big reason why Cultivate California’s messaging is needed.

The need to counter misinformation about farmers’ use of water is why Farm Credit has been one of the program’s largest donors since 2018, Curt Hudnutt, president and CEO of American AgCredit, said in the release.

American AgCredit, along with CoBank, Colusa-Glenn Farm Credit, Farm Credit West, Fresno Madera Farm Credit, Golden State Farm Credit and Yosemite Farm Credit, collectively contribute $100,000 a year to help Cultivate California inform Californians. The organizations are part of the nationwide Farm Credit System – the largest provider of credit to U.S. agriculture.

“This year, many California farms had just 5% of their water supply this year to grow our food,” Hudnutt said in the release. “Cultivate California is one of the most successful groups we have to educate people about the impacts the drought has on our food supply, and the need to improve our water storage to protect all of us in future droughts, and we are proud to help support them in their efforts.”

One important message this year is that farmers and irrigation districts need to have flexibility to transfer water supplies to areas in greater need without burdensome red tape, Wade said in the release. Improving the state’s water supply system is crucial, he said.

“We need to look long-term, which we should have done after the last drought,” Wade said. “Eighteen trillion gallons of water fell in February 2019 when the last drought ended, but we didn’t have the facilities to capture it and recharge our groundwater so we would have more supply available now. Hopefully our leaders will act so next time a drought occurs we will be better prepared.”

Rob Faris, president and CEO of Golden State Farm Credit, said in the release that it is essential that more Californians are exposed to one of Cultivate California’s key messages – that the state’s farmers are producing more food but using much less water.

“The value of the state’s farm production increased by 38% between 1980 and 2015 while our farmers used 14% less water,” Faris said in the release. “Farmers continually invest in irrigation technology, such as new drip and micro-irrigation systems, soil moisture monitoring, remote sensing, and computerized irrigation controls. Today, nearly half of our 8.4 million acres of irrigated farmland use drip, micro or subsurface irrigation, and more savings are on the way. Farm Credit is committed to help our members finance these improvements.”