Drought-stricken California farmers facing drastic cutbacks in irrigation water are expected to idle some 500,000 acres of cropland this year in a record production loss that could cause billions of dollars in economic damage, industry officials said.
Large-scale crop losses in California, the number one United States farm state producing half the nation's fruits and vegetables, would undoubtedly lead to higher consumer prices, especially for tree and vine produce grown only there. But experts say it is too soon to quantify the effect.
Coming off its driest year on record, California is gripped in a drought that threatens to inflict the worst water crisis in state history, prompting Gov. Jerry Brown last month to declare a state of emergency.
(Read more: California's 2-year drought—it's what's for dinner)
The Almaden Reservoir in San Jose, Calif., on Jan. 28, 2014.Getty Images
He urged residents to reduce their water consumption by 20 percent voluntarily.
California water managers later said the drought would force an unprecedented cutoff in state-supplied water sold to 29 irrigation districts, public water agencies and municipalities, barring an unexpected turnaround.
Irrigation deliveries to another group of agricultural districts served by the state are expected to be reduced by half, and an even larger group of farmers who get water from the federally operated Central Valley Project are likewise bracing for sharp cutbacks this year.
"We're in a dire situation that we've never been in before," said Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation.
The state's network of reservoirs that collect runoff of rainfall and snow melt from the Sierra Nevada range—the state's biggest source of fresh water—is badly depleted.
So too are the underground aquifers that have provided farmers reserves when water was otherwise scarce.
