AGRICULTURE: Farmers struggle with water price, cuts

'A tree is a wonderful thing to take care of'

By BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff Writer | Saturday, May 3, 2008 12:33 PM PDT ∞

VALLEY CENTER ---- Before imported water irrigated North County farmlands, the desert here was anything but fertile.

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Instead of groves of citrus and avocado trees and other crops, rocks and scrub vegetation dominated the landscape.

That desert could be returning. Faced with rising water costs and a water shortage, farmers in the breadbasket communities of Valley Center and Fallbrook are cutting back their operations -- and cutting down their trees.

Dead citrus trees and the white-painted stumps of avocado trees ---- avocados are one of the county's biggest cash crops ---- can be found in groves throughout Valley Center, Fallbrook, and other agricultural centers of North County.

"I think eventually there'll be no agriculture in Southern California," said Bob Polito, a Valley Center grower with Polito Family Farms. "There may be little pockets here and there, using local water, but for the most part agriculture in Southern California is going to disappear."

Polito said he's already removed about 1,000 citrus trees from among his roughly 6,000 citrus and avocado trees, cutting them down and turning them into mulch. Stumped avocado trees can regrow, but stumped citrus trees die.

Once trees come down, they're usually not going to be replaced, said Gary Arant, general manager of the Valley Center Municipal Water District. Because agriculture is increasingly marginal in Southern California, growers aren't going to make the investment and take the time to plant and water new trees and wait for them to become productive.

Citrus trees are the first to go because citrus isn't as profitable a crop as avocados, Arant said. But as water prices inexorably rise, growers say avocado trees will also come down in increasing numbers.

About 10 to 15 percent of the 24,000 acres of tree crops in Valley Center have been taken out of production since 2005, Arant said.

If agriculture does mostly vanish from San Diego County, it will involve substantial economic loss. San Diego County's agricultural output is estimated at $5 billion a year. The loss will also be aesthetic, said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau.

"We have pictures of Valley Center in the mid-50s when the water facility was formed," Larson said. "It was parched and brown. Agriculture in North County has made it green."

Pushed out

Growers say they have been able to cope with water prices until recently --- in large part owing to a program that provides discounted water from the Metropolitan Water District, the water wholesaler for Southern California.

In exchange for a 30 percent discount, growers agree to be first in line to get reductions of up to 30 percent or more if there's a severe enough water shortage. About 80 percent of the agricultural water in Valley Center is purchased under the program, Arant said.

Last year, for the first time in the program's two-decade history, that cutback clause was invoked. So growers with thirsty trees have "stumped" some trees to keep the others in production.

In Fallbrook, growers are stumping about a third of their avocado trees, said Bob Lucy, partner in the Del Rey Avocado Company Inc. Lucy said his company's growers have between 4,500 and 5,000 acres of avocado trees.

Some growers are removing the trees for good, Lucy said. Others are hoping that they'll be able to resuscitate their trees next year, if a 30 percent cut in their water supply is restored.

White-painted stumps are those avocado-tree growers are trying to preserve, Lucy said. These trees need a minimal amount of water while dormant but must be allowed to grow again in a year or two or they die.

Growers are frustrated, Lucy said, because they are not given the option of buying more water at full price. Some growers think they can survive even without discounted water, but aren't being given the chance.

The willingness of local governments to allow continued residential development in the face of a shortage also rankles, Lucy said.

Metropolitan isn't allowing growers to leave the discount program until the current water shortage is ended. The problem is, nobody can tell when that will be.

Environmental balance

The immediate cause of the cut is a court decision requiring a reduction in water exports from Northern California to Southern California, to protect an endangered fish, the Delta smelt. That, coupled with below-average precipitation in the state for the last few years, has already made water supplies precarious.

So with 30 percent less water, growers must cut production by 30 percent, said Keith Lewinger, general manager of the Fallbrook Public Utility District. In Fallbrook, the main crops are avocados, flowers and nursery-grown plants, Lewinger said.

Flower growers and nurseries have large overhead to cover, Lewinger said, "and now you chop off 30 percent of revenue."

He added: "I'm not sure how long they can go producing only 70 percent of their products. That's a business-by-business decision."

Lucy said growers also provide an environmental benefit, and trees should be considered in the equation along with endangered fish.

"Doesn't an avocado tree, as a living organism, have a right?" Lucy said. "It produces food, it gives off oxygen. A tree is a wonderful thing to take care of."

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com.

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