US drought will see thousands of jobs lost and cost farmers €1.2bn

California’s drought will cause thousands of workers to lose their jobs and cost farmers in the state’s Central Valley breadbasket $1.7bn (€1.2bn), researchers said in the first economic study of what may be the state’s driest year on record.

The most populous US state is in its third year of what officials are calling a catastrophic drought, leaving some small communities at risk of running out of drinking water and leading farmers to leave fallow nearly 500,000 acres of land.

“We wanted to provide a foundation for state agricultural and water policymakers to understand the impacts of the drought on farmers and farm communities,” said Richard Howitt, professor emeritus of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, and the report’s lead author.