Ducey urges lawmakers to pass drought plan, but farmers have concerns

[TexasTowelie]

Gov. Doug Ducey urged lawmakers Tuesday morning in a press conference with leaders from both parties to pass a Drought Contingency Plan before a fast approaching deadline at the end of this month.

The plan is part of a seven-state agreement, including Mexico, that would see all of them initiating certain restrictions and changes to keep the Colorado River from reaching an all-time low.

A federal deadline of Jan. 31, 2019, was imposed on the deal, so all seven states must pass legislation approving of the plan and outlining the finer details before that day.

“This is a huge, monumental task,” Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, said. “We’re going to work together, we are going to make this happen.”

Read more: https://www.azmirror.com/2019/01/15/ducey-urges-lawmakers-to-pass-drought-plan-but-farmers-have-concerns/

[LongtimeAZDem]

1. The farmers and ranchers have been warned for decades, and have stymied all efforts at conservation,

and they're now out of time. Water is at crisis levels, and agriculture uses 80% of Arizona's water but contributes only about 6% of it's economy.

[Kali]

2. don't forget that 100% of people's food comes from agriculture

and even though it takes a lot of water to grow that food, it doesn't just go to some small minority of beneficiaries.

Arizona is now a service economy, Walmart being the largest employer.

Only 2% of the entire nation is engaged in producing food and fiber so take those small percentage figures with a large grain of salt.

[LongtimeAZDem]

3. A very large portion of our agriculture is high dollar water intensive crops, drawn here by

lax water policies, with no incentives for efficiency. Crops like almonds are profitable business for overseas sales, but lousy for the desert.

[Kali]

4. not sure how much almond production there is here, but I will agree

on the problem with nuts in general. Also not sure the percentage is all that high, I would have to look into it more. I am a range livestock producer myself, and my water use is fairly minimal.

"Arizona's top five agricultural products are cattle and calves, lettuce, dairy products, cotton, and hay." http://www.netstate.com/economy/az_economy.htm

[LongtimeAZDem]

5. Alfalfa for cattle is a big one as well, which is not so bad, but lettuce is heavily water intensive.

The point is that, again, there have been no incentives to be efficient; we knew 40 years ago that it wasn't sustainable long-term, but did nothing, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

[Kali]

6. there are incentives, of course they could be better

some of that hay is exported as well, like nuts

40 years ago we did start doing something, that is when ADWR was formed, of course it has funding and personnel issues mostly due to repuke politics...

https://new.azwater.gov/adwr/history

https://new.azwater.gov/conservation/agriculture

http://www.arizonawaterfacts.com/water-your-facts