#Texas #Rice Farms Look for Miracle ›

fertilizermarkets:

Rains in Texas have failed to refill water reservoirs for the state’s main rice-growing areas, prompting the first-ever restrictions on irrigation that may lead to the smallest planted acreage since the 1920s.

The Lower Colorado River Authority, which manages lakes supplying water to 1.1 million people, including the city of Austin, Texas, plans to stop releasing water for irrigation on March 1, right before the start ofplanting for this year. The restriction would affect farmers in Colorado, Matagorda and Wharton counties, which produced 62 percent of the Texas rice crop and 3.7 percent of the U.S. harvest in 2009.

Read more at Bloomberg

In this May 19, 2011 photo, Tyler Gray stirs up a cloud of dust as pulls a tiller across a dry field near Lubbock, Texas, trying to break up hardened ground. A historic drought has already cost Texas farmers and ranchers an estimated $1.5 billion, and the cost is growing daily as parched conditions persist in much of the state. Photograph by Betsy Blaney/AP Photo

#drought  #texas  #agriculture  #rice  #farms  #farming  #climate change  #adaptation  #water  
∞  02/20/12 at 10:44am via bloomberg.com
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