Texas Drought Cost Rises
C O L L E G E S T A T I O N, Texas, Oct. 19 -- The 2000 drought has wrought $1.1billion in damage on state agriculture, hitting West Texas cottonespecially hard, the Agricultural Extension Service reported.
Texas A&M economists estimate that cotton losses alone havereached $485 million as fields, particularly those withoutirrigation systems, withered under the summer’s record spell ofheat and lack of rain.
Total agricultural losses were estimated at $820 million justlast week, but officials increased the total after factoring indamage to fall crops and expenses incurred by ranchers.
About $200 million of the increase resulted from cotton losses,crop specialist Carl Anderson said.
Drought expert Travis Miller warned Texans that rains this weekdidn’t come close to ending the statewide drought.
Foot of Rain Needed
“We’ve got a ways to go as far as filling soil [moisture]profiles,” Miller said. According to government experts, thecentral part of the state needs as much as a foot of rain to emergefrom the drought.
In addition to cotton losses, the drought has inflicted anestimated $153 million damage on wheat crops, $124 million damageon forage crops and $105 million in added feeding and wateringcosts for ranchers.
Drought in 1996 and 1998 led to about $2 billion in losses foreach of those years, according to Texas A&M.
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