Low Sierra snowpack expected to have little direct effect on California farmers

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

By DON THOMPSON

The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - While the Sierra snowpack is near its lowest level in almost two decades, state water managers say they expect few immediate consequences for farmers.

Summer water deliveries to California's orchards and farm fields are expected to be largely unaffected because previous wet years have created sufficient storage in reservoirs and groundwater basins.

California produces some of the nation's most valuable fruits and vegetables.

Department of Water Resources officials said Monday the state is seeing unusually dry conditions simultaneously in both Northern and Southern California for the first time since the 1987-1992 drought. They urged water agencies to start planning in case a second or third dry year follows this one.

"We haven't seen the mountains this dry this time of year since 1988, 1990," said Arthur Hinojosa, chief of the department's hydrology branch.

The department expects to find the snowpack to be less than 30 percent of average when it completes its final snow survey of the season today.

Runoff into state reservoirs ranges from about 67 percent of average at Lake Shasta to about 35 percent in the Southern Sierra, said Jeanine Jones, the department's interstate resources manager.

In the short term, dry conditions likely mean more wildfires, poorer grazing and reduced yields for non-irrigated crops such as winter wheat, Jones said.

Low runoff likely means poor river rafting and higher costs for hydroelectricity, but there should be enough water to help meet peak electricity demands this summer, Hinojosa said. Farmers in the San Joaquin Valley are unlikely to be greatly affected.

Hawaii researchers test genetically modified crops

HONOLULU - Despite cultural and environmental concerns, researchers at the University of Hawaii are performing genetically modified crop research to develop disease-resistant plants.

The university's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources is conducting transgenic crop research on pineapple, orchids, anthuriums, bananas, tomatoes, petunias and lettuce.

The university is also trying to develop sugar cane that is genetically modified to produce a vaccine to protect against rotavirus, a viral infection. Genetically modified, or transgenic, crops are plants that have been altered by the transfer of genetic material from another species.

Research on papaya and taro has caused a backlash among environmentalists and others. Some taro farmers worry that genetically modified breeds could escape the university environment and eventually overrun native varieties.

The development of new transgenic crops is driven by economics, said Stephen Ferreira, an assistant specialist for plant and environmental protection sciences at the university.