Working with NCWA, the California Warehouse Association, the California Ag Aircraft Association and the Western Plant Health Association, the California Rice Commission is actively pursuing relief for our employees, mills, dryers, applicators and suppliers to offset an estimated $250 million in indirect losses as a result of the drought.
This third year of drought will bring impacts to the Sacramento Valley unlike any we have seen before. Farm land will be idled, jobs lost and businesses will struggle. Our mills and dryers will handle far less rice. Ag aviation companies will ground planes. Valley-wide, NCWA estimates nearly one billion dollars of impacts will be realized for agriculture across the region.
The five organizations, working together at the state and federal level, are advancing discussions with Legislators and the Newsom and Biden Administrations on the immediate need for assistance. The Sacramento Valley represents just a portion of this worsening drought, now spanning California and the West, one that will require a coordinated response. Levels of funding and how relief gets to those who need it are still far from clear. What we do know is that we must engage now if we are to make a difference.
