The severe drought that is affecting the Borderland has hit growers hard. They now mostly have to rely on Mother Nature to get some rain, but that’s quite risky.
Farm manager Frankie Garay grew up in Derry, New Mexico. He now works on his family’s farm, growing chili, onions and alfalfa, among others. He said: “Our biggest challenge is keeping everything wet right now, especially now that it’s getting to 100 degrees. The heat really affects us and our chili crop when it gets hot and it experiences heat stress and it starts shedding bloom and we start using yield, so it affects our overall profit.”
The farm is struggling to survive the drastic water cutbacks. “Not getting the water really does hurt, and where it hurts us a lot is because we’re having to pump, and pumping brings up a lot of salt and that’s really gonna be bad in the long run for the crop,” Garay told kfoxtv.com.
Photo source: Dreamstime.com