A new study projects agriculture losses of $2.7 billion for the state’s massive agriculture industry alone, including the evaporation of more than 18,000 jobs.
California's drought will cost the state's huge agricultural industry $2.7 billion this year, according to a new study released Tuesday.
Dried mud and the remnants of a marina at the New Melones Lake reservoir on May 24, 2015.
MARK RALSTON / Getty Images
The study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, focused at how the drought is taking a toll on agriculture. It found that water shortages to farmers will cost the state $2.7 billion in 2015.
To put that in context, the median household income in California is $61,094. So that means the drought will cost the equivalent of about 44,194 median annual incomes.
Last year, the drought cost California $2.2 billion, so costs are rising as the water shortage drags on.
Jim Dalrymple II
Farmers are facing larger water shortages in 2015 than they faced in 2014. They can make up some of the difference by ground wells and buying water elsewhere, but that won't entirely make up the difference.
Richard Howitt, a researcher at UC Davis who co-authored the study, told BuzzFeed News that as a result, farmers are switching out crops, uprooting trees, and finding ways to reduce the amount of water they need.
"The crops they cut are the least valuable ones," Howitt said.
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