Biden administration to pay Western farmers to conserve water

The Biden administration will pay farmers in the Western U.S. to save water as the region contends with historic drought.

The Department of Agriculture announced Thursday that it will invest up to $400 million in paying farmers in 11 states to reduce their water consumption while continuing to produce commodities. 

The department said the action is expected to conserve up to 50,000 acre-feet of water — or about 16 billion gallons. 

"Agricultural producers are the backbone of rural communities across the West and many of them are struggling under prolonged drought conditions,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a written statement.

“We want to scale up the tools available to keep farmers farming, while also voluntarily conserving water and expanding markets for water-saving commodities,” he said. 

The department will give 18 water districts up to $15 million each. Those districts will then make subagreements with farmers to support the use of water saving technologies and farming practices and producing water-saving commodities.

The water districts preliminarily selected to be part of the program include parts of Idaho, Utah, Oregon, California, Washington state, New Mexico, Wyoming, Texas, Montana, Colorado and Nevada. 

The West has seen water shortages linked to both a historic drought in recent years and over-allocation of water from the Colorado River. These issues have been exacerbated by production of water-intensive crops like alfalfa (hay) as well as climate change.