Changes in Evapotranspiration of Agricultural Crops in Kern County during the 2014-2015 Drought Years

The 2012-2015 drought in California has major impacts for agricultural water users in Kern County. Farmers shifted crop planting patterns and irrigation scheduling to minimize profit loss with water shortage. This report models the changes in crop evapotranspiration from 2011 to 2014 and 2015 using the remote-sensing-based METRIC model developed by the University of Idaho. Results show that rather than universal losses of acreage and productivity, farmers reduced acreage on annual crops while increasing acreage on low-water-use new orchards. Productivity increased on the annual crops that remained in production, perhaps due to fallowing less productive land. High-value crops such as citrus and grapes saw increases in both acreage and productivity. Remote-sensing-based evapotranspiration mapping provides an important tool to policymakers by providing field-based estimates of a wide range of farmer responses to drought including planting, fallowing, under-irrigation, and, if combined with productivity models, changes in revenue.