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92 Part i california Water <br />Table 2.3 <br />Water use, revenues, and value of water by major crop categories, 2005 <br />Crops <br />Gross water <br />(%) <br />Net <br />water <br />(%) <br />Gross <br />revenues <br />(%) <br />Irrigated <br />acres <br />(%) <br />Gross <br />revenues/ <br />gross water <br />($/af) <br />Gross <br />revenues/ <br />net water <br />($/af) <br />Irrigated pasture 12 11 0.4 9 31 47 <br />Rice 10 926 127 223 <br />Corn 7717 176 258 <br />Alfalfa 18 18 4 12 200 287 <br />Cotton 7837 416 551 <br />Other field crops 88313 375 573 <br />Fruits and nuts 27 29 44 30 1,401 1,875 <br />Truck farming and <br />horticulture 10 10 42 16 3,724 5,363 <br />sOURcEs: Authors’ calculations using data provided by dWR staff. Revenue information draws on california Agricultural statistics <br />and county agricultural commissioner reports. <br />NOTEs: Gross water use = 27.3 maf, net water use = 18.9 maf; crop revenues from irrigated agriculture = $23.9 billion (2005 $); <br />irrigated crop acres (including multiple cropping) = 9.2 million acres. in addition to field corn, corn acreage and water use <br />includes some sweet corn, which is included in the value estimates for truck farming. “Truck farming and horticulture” includes <br />assorted vegetables, some fruits (e.g., melons), flowers, and nursery products. “Fruits and nuts” includes all fruit and nut tree <br />crops plus berries. <br />of net water used, whereas fruits and nuts (mostly tree crops) average close to <br />$2,000/acre-foot. Within these aggregate categories, the values of some crops <br />are much higher (e.g., high-quality wine grapes sell for much more than table <br />grapes or nuts), and these values also vary with world market conditions (e.g., <br />rice and wheat prices have been higher in recent years because of drought in <br />Australia and Russia, respectively). Also, some of the lowest-value crops (nota- <br />bly pasture and alfalfa) are inputs into the state’s meat and dairy production <br />activities, which generate about a quarter of total agricultural revenues. But <br />the general picture is one of striking contrasts, especially if one considers the <br />volumes of water allocated to different commodities; irrigated pasture and all <br />field crops combined accounted for 61 percent of net water use and only 14 per- <br />cent of gross crop revenues. <br />Although such simple comparisons do not reflect the complexities of needs <br />for crop rotations and the use of low-value crops for high-value livestock, there <br />still appears to be a considerable volume of low-value agricultural water use in <br />an increasingly parched California. As discussed below, these low-value activi- <br />ties potentially provide the state with some flexibility to cope with droughts