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• Board Meeting Date: 11/18/2008
• Description: IWMD Section - Alternative Agricultural Water Transfer Methods Grant Program
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Alternative Agricultural Water Transf er Methods – Grant and Loan Program
Project Summary Sheet
Applicant:
CSU—Southern Regional Extension Office
Water Activity Name:
The Effect of Land Fallowing and Water Rights Leasing on
Corn Yield, Nutrient Needs and Economics in the Lower Arkansas River Valley of
Colorado
Amount Requested:
$110,883
Matching Funds
: Yes ($12,320)
Drainage Basin:
Arkansas River
Water Source:
Arkansas River
Project Summary:
This project is intended for two purposes. First, it will evaluate the technical (i.e.,
economic, biophysical, and management) issues involved in maintaining or improving
yields on fallowed lands when they are put back into produc tion after the lease
arrangement ends. Secondly, it will provide a logistical anal ysis regarding the
practicability of coordinating these arrangements with a broker (likely the Super Ditch
Company), and also canal companies possessing both senior and junior water rights in the
Valley. With respect to the funding program goals, the proposed project will provide
usable and transferable information that wi ll increase statewide understanding of how to
continue farming within the context of leas e arrangements, thereby sustaining meaningful
production agriculture. Leasing strategies being advanced in the Valley are intended to
avoid permanent retirement and blighting of productive farmland. Water rights leasing
promotes the fallowing of land from irrigation for a prescribed number of years or on an
interruptible basis, in order to supply water to municipal a nd industrial (M & I) interests.
In the minds of farmers who are unfamiliar with the concept, however, water leasing
strategies raise key questions about: 1) the extent to which this strategy can help sustain
farming operations economically; 2) the biophysical impacts (e.g., soil quality) on
farmland during fallowing, and how these impacts may affect future cr op yields, and; 3)
the required costs and management associat ed with bringing land back into production
after it has been fallowed. These questions must be answered to inform irrigators of the
lease value of their water rights. Actual and ongoing demonstrations of water transfer, as
proposed in this project, w ill address an information gap regarding the economic value
and practicability of water leasing, as ultimat ely required to maintain profitable farming
operations.
The results of these demonstrations w ill also allow CSU Extension to provide
recommendations on land fallowing and re turning fallowed land back to production.
These recommendations are needed because of the expectation that farming will continue
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