Image via CalCom Solar

A new study finds that that strategic farmland repurposing could preserve landowner revenue and create jobs in the Golden State.

The article “Water, environment, and socioeconomic justice in California: A multi-benefit cropland repurposing framework,” was published in the February 2023 issue of scientific journal “Science of the Total Environment.”

The study finds that in the face of drought,  repurposing retired farmland could create better-paying jobs in rural communities while decreasing pollution and overall water use.

The study also examines the benefits of the creation of one-mile buffer zones in and around 154 disadvantaged rural communities to be used for solar energy and other clean industries, aquifer recharge projects and parks and wildlife corridors to help restore degraded ecosystems.

The study highlights increased numbers of farm owners allowing fields to go fallow or retiring swaths of land due to a lack of water. The study estimates that failing to repurpose retired cropland could lead to potential losses in the Central Valley of up to $4.2 billion a year and 25,682 jobs.

The study claims that the investment of an average of $27 million per community annually on new sustainable projects for 10 years could generate up to $15.6 billion a year over 30 years for the entire Central Valley.

This would create 62,697 new jobs that pay significantly more than farm work, according to the study.

In the study, “The Central Valley” is subdivided into two regions that span 16 counties—the Sacramento Valley region for the north, and the San Joaquin Valley for the south.  

The San Joaquin Valley counties include San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern.

According to the study, there are 25 “disadvantaged communities” in Fresno County alone, which is determined by a government tool according to one or more indicators.

To read the study, visit https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722070632?via=ihub