Central Valley farmers need a fighting chance to survive. This bill will help | Opinion

I’ve owned farmland and grown almonds here in Fresno County for nearly two decades, including for the last eight years in Cantua Ranch, a beautiful stretch of land that has been the backbone of my operation and my family’s livelihood.

But now, the land I’ve poured years of labor and love into is at risk – not because we lack the knowledge, equipment, or will to farm it, but because these fields are drying up.

That’s the reality for growers like me across the Central Valley.

In 2014 California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), a well-intentioned law to protect California’s water future. I support the need for sustainable water use. But as SGMA implementation rolls out, farmers like me are being told we may have to drastically cut back groundwater pumping, so much so that we might only be able to farm a fraction of our land. In my case, projections suggest I could be limited to putting just one-sixth of my land into permanent crops.

Nearly 1 million acres of farmland across the state are expected to come out of production due to SGMA. Without new uses for that land, agricultural jobs will disappear, local tax revenues will plummet, and our small towns, which are already stretched thin, will be left with few options. A 2023 Public Policy Institute of California report put it bluntly: without action, the economic fallout for the Central Valley could be massive.

If we don’t find new ways to keep this land economically viable, our rural communities are going to suffer badly.

But legislation currently moving at the state Capitol, Assembly Bill 1156, provides a lifeline by making it easier to repurpose fallowed farmland for clean energy projects like solar panels. It’s a smart, timely solution that protects farmers, supports clean energy, and brings jobs and investment back to rural California.

At the same time, California is under pressure to massively scale up clean energy to meet the state’s climate goals. But clean energy projects need land. Not just any land, but property that is flat, contiguous, near transmission lines and not environmentally sensitive. That’s exactly what we have here in the Westlands and other parts of the Central Valley.

What we don’t have is a regulatory framework that lets us use our land for clean energy infrastructure without endless red tape. AB 1156 fixes that. It updates state policy to reflect today’s realities, giving farmers like me a clear, secure path to partner with solar developers on dried-up land, without losing our ability to return to farming in the future if water conditions improve.

This isn’t about giving up on agriculture. Farming is what we do and will continue on as much of my land as viable. But I also need options, particularly for the acres I may no longer be able to irrigate.

Solar and other clean energy projects give us that option. It keeps the land working, generates reliable income, and creates jobs right here in our communities. Over the next 20 years, clean energy development on dormant farmland could create tens of thousands of jobs, generate billions in tax revenue, and inject tens of billions in labor income into the Central Valley economy.

At Singh Farms, we’ve weathered many challenges over the years: droughts, market swings, and now, shrinking water access. But what we need now is a partner in Sacramento who sees the big picture. AB 1156 is that big-picture solution. It gives farmers a lifeline, our communities a future, and California the clean energy growth it desperately needs.

Let’s give this land, and the people who depend on it, a fighting chance.