Growing more drought-tolerant crops could be an option for San Joaquin Valley farmers facing severe groundwater cutbacks, according to two joint studies by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).
The studies looked at growing winter crops or forage using less water as an economic alternative to straight out fallowing ground.
“This is not a solution or means of (groundwater) demand reductions, but a way to make that fallowing less bad,” Caitlin Peterson, PPIC Associate Director and one of the authors of the studies, told SJV Water. “How can we still achieve that reduction in pumping but not reduce productivity?”…