<p></p><p>The California drought is an all-encompassing natural disaster that requires everyone in the state to share the sacrifices and work cooperatively on long-term solutions to this critical water situation (In parched California, there’s still plenty of water for nut trees – and for Nestle’s bottles, 20 April).</p><p>Despite suggestions to the contrary, farmers have been sharing the pain as all Californians work to get through the drought. Federal and state agencies slashed agricultural water supplies deeply last year, fallowing 500,000 acres of farmland at the cost of $1.5bn and eliminating 17,000 jobs in the region. This year promises to be even tougher as the drought continues. Agriculture will get just 20% of its normal state water allocation and zero federal water at all for the second straight year.Contrary to some claims, almond farms occupy less than 12% of the state’s total irrigated farmland and use only about 8% of the agricultural (not total) water supply. Of these, 90% are family owned and about 75% are less than 100 acres. As such, farmers in the region know the value of water on a very personal level, and are taking steps to use their allocation as resourcefully as possible.</p><p>To support this push for water efficiency, the Almond Board of California has funded 87 irrigation research projects to date. With 70% of almond orchards now using micro-irrigation systems, the amount of water needed to produce each pound of almonds has been driven down by 33%.Our farmers engage every day in advancing methods that save water, while still producing a large share of the US and global food supply. We want to be part of the solution to this drought and know we have more to do, but suggestions that agriculture and specifically almond farmers are reacting irresponsibly to this water shortage are completely unfounded.<br></p><p></p>