California IN BRIEF : BAKERSFIELD : Farm Losses Not as Dire as Predicted

Farmers in Kern County scrounged up enough water to avoid a drought disaster when their state supply was cut off last spring, according to an economist who had predicted worse farm losses. Robert McKusick said long-range crop losses were less than 5% of his estimate that farmers should expect $6.1 billion in damages. Water transfers and pumping from underground wells helped cut the losses to about $256 million. However, farm workers appear to have fared worse than the farmers but not as badly as McKusick predicted. He predicted that 11,000 people would lose jobs in Kern County. He now says 9,000 people were put out of work by the lack of water for this year’s crops.