By: Olivia Dicks
CENTER – People of Colorado’s San Luis Valley are conflicted and struggling with climate change that appears to be having both positive and negative effects on their lives.
Climate change is negatively affecting much of our Earth, but it may be helping farmers in the San Luis Valley by letting them grow more. Potatoes typically benefit from cooler temperatures. The average temperature in the valley “hasn’t changed enough to make a difference,” said Sheldon Rockey, the third-generation owner of Rockey Farms.
However, a slight bit of warming due to climate change has helped farmers because “planting dates have changed,” Rockey said. Farmers find they can plant as early as April, instead of late May, and grow crops through the middle of October. This has been very beneficial for Rockey Farms and others around the valley, Rockey said.
On the down side, climate change is creating new challenges for Rockey Farms. In 1998, the farmers in the valley started seeing less runoff from the Rio Grande River, reducing the water available for irrigation.
Although potentially devastating, this shift also spurred Rockey Farms owners to reconfigure what they plant. They plant less potatoes overall, took out water-intensive barley, added quinoa, and began planting sorghum-sudan to improve the quality of their soil and reduce their water use.
This progression allowed them to “put more water in than we take out” from the underground aquifer that is their primary source of water, he said. Not only do the Rockey brothers avoid paying out funds under a new 90 dollar tax imposed by subdistricts farmers formed to address water challenges, but they get credit for using less water, he said.
Across the valley, climate warming is driving similar changes in the agricultural production that remains the mainstay of the valley’s economy.
Scientists at the San Luis Valley Research Center run by Colorado State University are attempting to “do research to improve agriculture,” in the valley because of climate change, said Samuel Essah, potato specialist who has worked at the center for more than two decades.
“Water is a major crisis,” Essah said, compelling researchers at the lab to try and “develop new potatoes every year” that use less water.
Researchers see that farmers are cutting acres due to a lack of water, so to help farmers, the CSU research lab is attempting to “evaluate which variety’s use less water and maximize yield,” said Essah. This allows farmers to keep their acreage and help the valley and aquifer by using less water.
Climate change leading to longer growing seasons gives flexibility and helps farms, Essah said. Still, the heat and more common droughts could threaten the future of growing potatoes in the valley, he said.
So, for the valley, farmers see positivity and negativity around climate change.
And negative changes are forcing farmers to adapt because “they know the water isn’t there,” Essah said.
The problem is that some farmers don’t want to change. “People have lived the same way here for a long time,” said Christine Canaly, a local environmental activist who runs the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council.
New ways of farming in the valley began with what crops farmers are growing. Not only are they choosing to grow sorghum-sudan and quinoa because they use less water, but many are transitioning to growing hemp, said Canaly. “All the greenhouses that were growing vegetables are now growing hemp,” which could be very good for the valley, she said.
“Hemp uses a quarter of the water that barley uses,” she said. On the other hand, growing hemp requires hiring a lot of workers.
Although climate change has had detrimental effects on the valley, farmers and researchers have been successful in making changes that are positive for the valley, Canaly said, reflecting optimism for the valley.
San Luis Valley residence will succeed, she said, by “doing some things very slowly, and some things very quickly.”
