Farmers suffer from heat, water loss

"Water is worse than oil," the animated 43-year-old farmer said. "Oil you can substitute with other things. Water you cannot substitute."

A few years ago, in the middle of a severe drought that had drastically reduced crop production, Monterey cut off the supply of water downstream to the Rio San Juan reservoir that provides irrigation to local fields.

The situation became so bad that banks refused to finance farmers. Pinal and other farmers were forced to change their crops to sorghum, which is more drought-resistant than corn but not nearly as profitable. Even so, they had access to less than half the water needed.

"This is dry land," said farmer Roberto Morales, 43, motioning to the field of corn behind him on a cold February day. "You must irrigate it or you get nothing here."

As global warming and population growth make water even more valuable, farmers such as Morales and Pinal and their Texas counterparts are likely going to have to learn how to do with less.

Farming has long dominated the landscape on both sides of the Rio Grande. But farmers will lose much of their share of water as cities grow and supply dwindles.

Farming uses about 80 percent of the water in the eight-county Rio Grande Valley water district. That's expected to drop to less than 60 percent in the next 50 years as the population of the region more than triples, to an estimated 3.8 million people by the year 2060.

Even with the shift, a shortfall of 195 billion gallons a year is expected by that time, according to the Texas Water Development Board. That shortfall doesn't account for the impact a warming environment will have on the river and reservoirs. And the way the law works in the Valley, cities get first crack at the water.

"There is going to be enough water for the urban growth, but what we need to have is a balance so the agriculture community can continue to survive," said Wayne Halbert, general manager of the Harlingen Irrigation District.