Colusa County Agricultural officials are reporting a very slow start to what could be a virtually nonexistent season for rice.
“I have only heard of one field in Colusa so far being planted over the weekend,” said Ag Commissioner Anastasia Allen, in a report Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors. “It’s pretty grim.”
Allen said she is keeping a tally from information she has received from rice growers, as well as the county’s aerial applicators.
As drought conditions continue, Allen anticipates as little as 7,000 acres of rice will be planted this year.
“I was hoping for 20,000; I optimistically said 15,000; and now we are looking at maybe 10,000 acres,” she said. “That’s down from a normal full season of usually about 147,000. We usually are close to 150,000 acres of rice.”
Allen said she anticipates that seed crop production will also be at an all time low.
“We typically have 100 applications in by now,” she said. “Of the 600 applications we get for the season, we have 12. That is going to be a tough season for us.”
The overall economic impact from the reduction in agriculture crops this year is compounded by the loss of the almond crop to February’s freeze, in which temperatures dropped to 28 degrees and lasted for over nine hours.
“I did complete our survey,” Allen said. “Our disaster came to a 65 percent loss.”
Although 75 percent of this year’s almond crop was actually lost, the loss survey is based on a five year average that includes the loss that occurred in 2018, also from a sudden freeze.
This recent crop damage, believed to be higher than in surrounding counties, amounts to a $210 million loss in production value.
“We are the hardest hit from the numbers I’ve seen so far,” Allen said.
Allen said the California Office of Emergency Services has accepted the survey for review, and will submit it to the USDA for disaster declaration.
“Now we are waiting for USDA to go through their process,” she said.
As a result of the almond disaster, farmers will eventually be eligible for programs, grants, loans, and services offered by the USDA Farm Service Agency.
“That is just for the almond crop,” Allen said.
Because drought is an ongoing issue, the loss of the rice crop this year is not considered a natural disaster.
Allen said the rice crop is lost because of the reduction in water allocations, not a single event that allows the Ag Commissioner’s office to declare a natural disaster.
So far, Colusa County cannot gauge if other tree crops, such as persimmons, suffered a major loss from the freeze, which could trigger another disaster declaration.
“If there is another crop and we meet that 30 percent threshold, we would write another letter and include that crop,” Allen said. “But we did not get enough feedback.”
Allen said they did get some reports of damage to prunes, pistachios, and some stone fruits, but it was not enough to meet the 30 percent threshold.
Colusa County Chief Executive Officer Wendy Tyler said that all data, including loss of crops due to drought and loss of crops due to frost damage will be used for the county to leverage financial assistance from the state and federal governments, and anticipates the economic impact from the loss will affect the community over the next few years.
Allen said Colusa County’s top three crops are almonds, rice, and walnuts, in that order.
“Rice is at a 95 percent loss and almonds are at a huge loss of $210 million,” she said. “And that is at the production level. We are already seeing and getting reports of it trickling down to the secondary support groups: the pesticide dealers, the aerial applicators, and labor across the board.” ■