Many Central Coast farms were devastated by floods last January, but local farmers say crops are starting to thrive again.
On a recent sunny day near Los Alamos, Kevin Merrill of Mesa Vineyard Management stood in the shade looking out at rows of healthy grapevines. He said after years of drought, the region desperately needed rain, but this past winter created some major challenges.
“I think it’s a mixed blessing. When you get that much rain at one time, of course it’s hard for the ground to take in once it gets saturated. Some farmers lost productivity, we did here,” he said.
Merrill is also on the board of the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau. He said local crops of all kinds were affected by the storms.
“It was not easy for some of the vegetable growers right in that part of the season when they’re trying to grow lettuce and all those types of things, to have their fields flooded. It took a while to recover from that, and I think some still are,” Merrill said.
He said his vineyard needed about $200,000 in repairs and the storm set his schedule back a few weeks, but as long as mother nature cooperates this fall, he expects a good harvest.
Claire Wineman is president of the Grower-Shipper Association for the Central Coast, a non-profit trade organization that supports agribusiness in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
“Agriculture is a major source of employment and income, and a major economic driver here on the Central Coast,” she said.
Wineman said strawberry crops were especially affected since they are harvested first in February, then again in the summer. The summer harvest is now underway and strawberry stands are open for business.
She said the total damage to agribusiness from the flooding is still being assessed, but it's a big number.
“The initial damage estimates in San Luis Obispo County total $38 million, and in Santa Barbara County, the initial damage estimates were $169 million,” she said.
Farmers on the Central Coast grow fruits and vegetables for the whole country, and Wineman said given the region’s importance on a national scale, more federal disaster protections are needed for the Central Coast going forward.
