Water

April 5, 2004

As we prepare to plant com in Illinois, I begin to think about the weather.Will we get enough rain? Will we get it at the right time? Will the river come out and flood the crop? We have about 300 acres of bottom land. I always hope it will flood before the crop is planted and not after. In most of the Midwest we rely on good old Mother Nature to deliver the life giving moisture.

But in many countries they may have as much as 80% of their land underirrigation. Irrigation is a more dependable water supply, but much more expensive. Go west in the U.S. and we find thousands and thousands of acres under irrigation. I said water can be expensive. Competition for a limited supply of water is fierce.

Reading in the Wall Street Journal I see where a family farming 3,000 acrespaid $720,000 for water. That water is subsidized or it would cost over 1m dollars.

Those kinds of costs for water are hard to imagine. That farmer certainly cannot be growing com. The water would cost more than the value of the whole crop. Clearly producers with sky rocketing water costs have to grow high value crops like tomatoes and onions and other vegetables. In some places they do grow cotton, alfalfa, rice and wheat with irrigated water, but therefore have favorable long term water contracts.

Simple arithmetic points out that with more and more people in that regiondemanding water to irrigate their lawns and wash their cars, farmers are going to end up with the short end of the stick. The urban people have the votes. Inevitably the government will raise the price of water. Thus who can afford to buy it? You're right. Not the farmers. Certainly the arid west will have to give up growing low value crops, even some high value crops may not beprofitable. It's going to be a painful transaction.

Although I'm still concerned about the spring rains on our farnl/: I'm sure glad we don't have to buy the water.

Until next week. I am John Block from Washington.