“We just don’t have enough water”: Louisiana crawfish farmer on unprecedented drought

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Kaplan, La. - For months, Louisiana state has seen their driest season yet and farmers are feeling the brunt.

“This is probably the worst drought we’ve had since the 90's,” said Kaplan Farmer Christian Richard. “We had cracks in the ground that you can stick your hand all the way to your elbow,” Christian told KATC.

Leading the nation in crawfish production, a widespread drought of this magnitude has several consequences. As the drought continues, areas like Vermilion Parish have seen some of its negative effects.

For sixth generation farmer Christian, little to no rain means high expenses. The low water levels are leading farmers like Christian to pump more water from his wells to properly irrigate the crops. Christian is pumping on average five times more water from his wells than the previous season causing his electricity bill to rise.

“We have to rely heavily on our deep water wells. Some of these wells ran for 2-3 months straight without stopping. I’ve had two water wells that have quit producing water altogether. So, we’ve had our share of problems with just the wear and tear. We might be putting the equivalent of a normal 4-5 years span of usage on these water wells within a three month period,” Christian said.

According to Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, Louisiana’s crawfish industry contributes to more than $300 million of the state’s economy. On average, the crawfish industry supplies 100 to 120 million pounds per year.

With the lack of rain this season, there’s no telling how many crawfish will survive. “The uncertainty is in this year’s upcoming crawfish crop. We don’t know how the crawfish were affected in the ground, we don’t know if they died in the borrows, we don’t know if the ground is too hard for them to come back up, we don’t know if we will have any crawfish at all,” Christian said.

The Richard family are trying to adapt to this new reality. “We just need a good rain to come in and recharge some of the water source for us,” he said.

Christian is hoping for a better season for the generations to come. ““We’re definitely dependent on mother nature quite a bit but you know we do the best we can with what we have and we try to leave the land here for the 7th generation, 8th generation, and the 9th better than what we got it before and that’s we strive to do,” he said.

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