Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/334913
Asoneofthemostproductiveagricultural regions in the world, California produces more than 400 different farm products and is the nation's largest agricultural producer. In 2012, California farm output was valued at a record $45 billion, or about one-tenth of the total for the entire nation, and the state is also the nation's largest agricultural ex- porter, with exports reaching a record $18.2 billion in 2012. Ourrichagricul- tural production is made possible in part by irrigation supplied by a vast water in- frastructure network that includes reser- voirs, aqueducts, di- version dams, and ir- rigation ditches. Unfortunately however, much of that infrastruc- ture is not easily compati- ble with efficient on-farm irri- gation technology and badly needs to be updated. For ex- ample, in some areas, water is not available to farmers on demand, making it difficult to implement some efficiency measures. In others water is available on a scheduled basis and must be consumed or be at risk for shut off. Consequently users em- ploy a variety of terms to de- scribe agricultural water use, including water use, water withdrawals, and consump- tive use. Water use and withdrawals are used synonymously here to refer to water taken from a source and used for agricul- tural purposes, such as crop irrigation, frost protection, and leaching salts from soil. It includes conveyance losses, i.e., seepage or evaporation from reservoirs and canals. Water sources include local groundwater and surface wa- ter as well as water imported via large infrastructure proj- ects like the federal Central Valley Project and State Wa- ter Project. Over the past 50 years, Cal- ifornia agriculture has made significant water-use effi- ciency improvements. There are a variety of ways to eval- uate these efficiency improve- ments. During the 1960s, the eco- nomic productivity of wa- ter averaged $420 per acre- foot. Economic productivity increased considerably in the 1970s and 1980s but remained consistently below $700 per acre-foot. In every year since 2003, however, it has ex- ceeded $700 per acre-foot. This trend was driven by several factors, including a shift toward higher-value crops and the increased adop- tion of more-efficient irriga- tion technologies and prac- tices. For example, the total and percentage of cropland using flood irrigation has steadily declined, replaced by preci- sion drip and micro-sprinkler irrigation systems. So as you can see agri- culture can significantly improve water-use effi- ciency while maintain- ing or even increasing productivity. Improved technology and manage- ment practices are al- ready contributing to a trend toward improved effi- ciency, but much more can be done. The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that agricultural water use could be reduced by 5.6 mil- lion to 6.6 million acre-feet per year, or by about 17 to 22 per- cent, while maintaining pro- ductivity and total irrigated acreage. Part of these savings are reductions in consump- tive use, ranging from 0.6 mil- lion to 2.0 million acre-feet per year, which represents ad- ditional supply that can be- come available for other ben- eficial uses. The rest reflect a reduction in water required to be taken from rivers, streams, and groundwater, with im- provements in water qual- ity, instream flow, and energy savings, among other bene- fits. In addition to reducing water use, efficiency improve- ments can increase crop yield and quality while reducing in- put costs, resulting in higher profits. In 2009, the Pacific Insti- tute released "Sustaining California Agriculture in an Uncertain Future," a compre- hensive analysis of the wa- ter savings potential of in- creased adoption of three on-farm technology and management practices. First better irrigation technology would shift nearly 1.1 million acres of land currently irri- gated by flood to drip and 2.2 million acres of land ir- rigated by flood to sprin- klers; second better irriga- tion scheduling would be expanded to all California farms using local climate and soil information to determine crop water requirements; and third regulated deficit irri- gation practices would apply less water to all wine grape, raisin, almond, and pistachio acreage in California dur- ing drought-tolerant growth stages to save water and im- prove crop quality. It is high time that these five year old recommenda- tions be fully enacted to pre- serve our precious water re- sources and agricultural abundance. I encourage all lo- cal water users to research their options to use water more efficiently, increase pro- ductivity, and improve prof- itability. Investments made now will bring a long stream of savings and help relieve water storage and distribu- tion stress. RichardMazzucchiisare- tired research engineer spe- cializing in energy efficiency and renewable energy. He has travelled extensively and now makes his home in Los Molinos, where he is striv- ing to manifest a sustainable and spiritual lifestyle and op- erate a barbecue equipment and supply business. He can be reached at living-green@ att.net. Anotherview Help curb stress on water usage and transport Cartoonist's take Chief Probation Of- ficer Dave Muench will share his thoughts with the Tea Party Patriots to- night at 6 at the West- side Grange. Several other topics are on tap, including a video series on Agenda 21. Hardly a conspiracy theory, this United Nations-driven program's goal is the ordering of land use and resource allocation in Amer- ica to conform to global warm- ing alarmist demands. In its de- sign, humans should occupy less land in higher densities, while ever-greater expanses of earth's surface should return to human- and resource-extrac- tion-free conditions. That's sus- tainability: you live in less, on less, use less and it will all cost you more. It's ironic that, in the 10th year of writing this weekly, lo- cal, conservative-oriented col- umn, the Iraq War is once again prominent and contro- versial. Many columns pushed back and refuted the incessant lies and propaganda from the anti-war left that proliferated in public debate on this page. As is often said, "a lie can cir- cle the world before the truth can put on slippers," the sim- plified (and deceptively sim- ple-minded) "Bush lied, soldiers died" mantra fueled waves of hysterical anti-Bush/Iraq war zealots uninterested in a calm examination of counter-narra- tives. Among factually true nar- ratives: 1) Due to public sup- port for the war, Democrats de- manded votes so they could be on record supporting the 22 ar- ticles of indictment against Sad- dam Hussein justifying the "Au- thorization for Use of Force" in Iraq; 2) Those same Democrats, including Hillary Clinton (who cited President Bill Clinton's in- tel), touted and professed their convictions over Saddam's use and expected stockpiles of WMDs—recent news items re- ported that current ISIS mili- tants took over an Iraqi WMD- stockpile facility, others de- duced that chemical weapons used in Syria could only have come from Saddam—but, never mind. 3) Numerous commis- sions in America and Brit- ain found no misrepre- sentation by their lead- ers of the intelligence used to make WMD-re- lated pronouncements; 4) UN weapons inspec- tors concluded that Sad- dam Hussein retained and maintained the pro- grams and capabilities to re- start chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons once, as expected, sanctions were lifted on his regime; 5) As long as they respected, and gave obe- dience to, Saddam's authority, terrorists were allowed to have training camps in Iraq—as long as Saddam could retain "plau- sible deniability" of encourag- ing them; 6) President Bush, faced with a military path to de- feat in 2006, made the case for, overrode predictions of failure over, and—in one of the gutsi- est military calls by a modern president—ordered the surge of troops and an expansion of strategy to deliver a crushing defeat of both Shiite militias and Sunni/al Qaeda terrorists. That prepared the way for elec- tions that established the only Middle Eastern county (be- sides Israel) to have represen- tative self-governance, accom- plished only through "boots on the ground" and sacrifices by our military. Wars have always been such. Massive destruction and loss of life necessarily accompanied the defeat of the South in the Civil War; likewise, World War II and Hitler's Nazi-led Ger- many. Union troops occupied the South; tens of thousands of American troops remained in Germany to secure the gains and keep the people in a state of passive compliance. Like- wise, Japan. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower only secured a free, economically vibrant and safe South Korea with massive sacrifices and gutsy military calls. Such South Korean gains were also secured for that na- tion's posterity by tens of thou- sands of our soldiers at the bor- der with North Korea. Our mili- tary is an ever-present threat of America's might coming down on the "Nork's" pot-bellied dic- tators like the proverbial "ton of bricks" from Hades—if they try to impose starvation, impover- ishment and brutal dictatorship on South Korea. Bush's Iraq: During the surge, America's military, to- gether with the "Anbar Awak- ening" among regular Sunnis, defeated Sunni terrorists; Mar- ginalized Shiite militias posed diminishing threats to Iraq's government; The parties and religious sects of Iraq regarded America's military as fair ar- biters of central governmental power; Our troops at combat outposts reported that the per- cent of missions encountering "hostile contact" declined from about 20-30 percent to about one percent. That sounds like an expen- sive but successful conclusion of major hostilities under Presi- dent Bush, which required only a residual force of some tens of thousands of soldiers and Ma- rines, under diminishing phys- ical threat, to sustain. I've read that Bush intended such a pres- ence but wanted to leave max- imum flexibility for his succes- sor, Barack Obama, who chose the "bug out" approach, defying all of the lessons of past con- flicts (America lost thousands of troops in the Philippines a century ago but stayed there to secure our hard-fought gains). Obama truly is losing what Bush and our brave, heroic mil- itary won. By the way, America's role in Vietnam could have ended successfully if 1) counterinsur- gency efforts had been main- tained, 2) if bombing of North Vietnam had continued un- til they pleaded for surrender, or 3) if Congressional Dem- ocrats had honored commit- ments to provide support and material to the elected govern- ment of South Vietnam against the North. Democrats and their news media sycophants simply do not want, for ideological reasons the way I see it, America and our military held up as models of success and strength in the world. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. Columnist A decade on, Iraq returns to this local conservative's column Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that agricultural water use could be reduced by 5.6 million to 6.6 million acre-feet per year, or by about 17 to 22 percent, while maintaining productivity and total irrigated acreage. Sounding off Alookatwhatreadersaresayingincommentsonourwebsiteandonsocialmedia. It'sagoodstart—buttheplayground equipment that was all ripped out needs to be replaced! What's a park without a fun playground for the kids? Ann Taylor-Minch: In response to an editorial about improvements at River Park It's nice to hear good news like this about our town. We need to reclaim all of a Red Bluff, not just the city park. Jodine Manner: In response to an editorial about improvements at River Park Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Richard Mazzucchi Don Polson OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, June 24, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6