EDITORIAL: Limit Land Fallowing

By The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

Feb. 25–ROTATIONAL CROP fallowing, if done properly, can allow a farmer or group of farmers on an irrigation canal to lease water temporarily for much-needed income while holding on to the permanent water rights.

If done badly — fallowing too much crop land for too long — water leases can result de facto in a permanent dry-up that leaves entire agricultural communities economically devastated. The potential for irreversible damage is real.

Farmers contemplating rotational crop management plans must be forever vigilant to avert this disaster.

The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District is studying how to design a master water leasing program that, ideally, would be managed by farmers in participating irrigation ditch companies.

We wish them well, with a serious cautionary note: Do not enter into long-term leases that would fallow too much land — say, more than 25 percent — because the dry-up then could become permanent.

Further, the Lower Ark District has a contract pending with the Colorado State University Agricultural Research Center to measure the effects of three straight years of fallowing an 11-acre tract of irrigated land near Rocky Ford. This test case could provide a sound scientific basis for setting limits on fallowing leases in the Lower Arkansas Valley.

The utter lack of limits is the reason we strongly opposed HB1124, a rotational crop management bill enacted last year at the behest of Aurora. Aurora’s motives were clear — to continue taking water and drying up whole agricultural areas, such as the Lower Arkansas Valley.

We urge legislators to recognize the dangers of HB1124 and to pass legislation imposing legal limits on crop fallowing. Colorado’s agricultural heritage and the Lower Arkansas Valley’s future are at stake.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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