Loading...
Farmers share their perspectives on California water management and the sustainable groundwater management act
Wagner, Courtney Hammond Niles, Meredith T.
Wagner, Courtney Hammond
Niles, Meredith T.
Citations
Altmetric:
License
© 2018 The Authors
DOI
10.3733/ca.2017a0040
Abstract
Agriculture is the largest human use of water in California, which gives farmers a critical role in managing water to meet the goals of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). To explore farmers’ perspectives on SGMA, we held focus groups with 20 farmers in Yolo County, where the groundwater basin has been given a high/medium priority under SGMA. The farmers had varying perspectives about the factors that led to SGMA and varying responses to the regulation. They suggested that drought, competing agricultural and urban uses, and an increase in perennial crops were factors in recent water use, resulting in changes to water quality and quantity. Impacts of those changes included variable well levels, increased infrastructure costs, and ecosystem impacts, which farmers had responded to by implementing multiple management strategies. Additional research in other regions is imperative to provide farmers’ viewpoints and strategies to policymakers, irrigation districts, farmer cooperatives, and the agricultural industry and give farmers a voice at the table.
Description
Date
2018-01-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Files
Loading...
Niles2017b.pdf
Adobe PDF, 781.38 KB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
Niles M, Wagner C. 2018. Farmers share their perspectives on California water management and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Calif Agr 72(1):38-43. https://doi.org/10.3733/ca.2017a0040.