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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Wednesday, May 01, 2024
The Bureau of Reclamation is working on new steps to prevent further depletion of drought-stricken Colorado River reservoirs that are critical for agriculture and cities but shrinking to levels that can’t sustain hydropower.
The federal government’s Drought Resilience Interagency Working Group is helping coordinate the distribution of $13 billion provided by the infrastructure bill as drought continues to hammer western communities.
Drought conditions that have been concentrated in the West and southern Plains are likely to spread in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota this summer, according to the U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook.
The Biden administration is looking to farmers to help alleviate global food shortfalls by planting winter wheat this fall on ground that’s coming out of the Conservation Reserve Program, but much of the acreage lies in states that are suffering from prolonged drought.
FAO's measure of global food commodity prices fell slightly in April, driven by an easing of corn and vegetable oil prices, after jumping 13% the month before following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Many farmers in the southern Plains and the West worry they can't produce their crops this year because of an abnormally dry winter and little prospect for moisture in coming weeks.
More money is on the way for producers who had previously filed for assistance through Department of Agriculture programs to help feed their livestock after suffering through inclement weather in 2021.