An idea born during the 2012-’16 drought at a single ACWA-member agency thrives today as a regional strategy that successfully incentivizes growers to save water by raising lower-water-use crops.
Earlier this year, Rancho California Water District’s (Rancho Water) CropSWAP program expanded to five neighboring water agencies in Riverside and San Diego counties. CropSWAP — the SWAP standing for Sustainable Water for Agricultural Production — relies on state and federal grant funding to pay farmers to switch to more water thrifty crops.
A popular example is converting from avocados, which when farmed in quantity can require up to six acre-feet per year, to wine grapes, which can grow on as little as two acre-feet per year. A participating farmer can receive up to $22,500 per acre in return. But the program also includes paying farmers to switch from citrus and row crops to less water-intensive olives, cut flowers and passion fruit, to name a few examples…