- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
- Author: Anil Shrestha, California State University, Fresno
- Author: Jeffery A. Dahlberg
- Author: Lynn Epstein
Since the advent of irrigation in California with the widespread drilling of wells in the 1930s and the proliferation of orchard crops during the past two decades, total annual water use in many watersheds exceeds supply. Partly as a consequence, California enacted the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014, which limits withdrawals to replenished levels.
Because irrigated agriculture accounts for nearly 80% of total water use, reductions in irrigation will be required, but preferably without decreasing either productivity or food supply. Furthermore, with some climate change projections suggesting a potential 20% water loss by the middle of the century, the need for more efficient water use could become acute....
- Author: Michelle Leinfelder-Miles
In early June 2019, I visited some contiguous garbanzo bean fields in southern San Joaquin County, at the request of the grower. The grower observed that plants were yellowing and dying (Fig. 1) and wondered what might be causing the problem. The grower did not figure that he would be able to do anything about the problem in this year's crop, but he was thinking ahead for future cropping. He doesn't have reliable water at this site, so his cropping options (i.e. rotation options) are limited. He would consider growing garbanzos in these fields again next year unless diagnostics revealed a disease problem.
My observations of the field were that there were patches of several...
