His almond trees have turned a ghostly gray, and his grapevines are shriveling.
After two years without water, Garrett Rajkovich’s farm in western Fresno County is dying. It might never be farmed again. Approximately 1,200 acres face the prospect of permanent retirement.
“This was a beautiful, thriving orchard five years ago,” Rajkovich said during a recent stroll through his almond grove.
Rajkovich’s troubles represent an extreme case, even by the standards of California’s epic drought. Unlike many farmers, he didn’t have groundwater as a backup when deliveries of surface water from the federal government dried up. But what he’s going through represents a taste of things to come.
