Central Valley farmers in drought-stricken California just got very bad news: the ongoing drought means they will get no federally allocated irrigation water this year.

The Bureau of Reclamation made the announcement on Friday.

“This low allocation is yet another indicator of the impacts the severe drought is having on California communities, agriculture, businesses, power, and the environment,” Michael L. Connor, Reclamation Commissioner, said in a statement.

The state’s snowpack is at just 29 percent of normal levels, and the latest Drought Monitor shows the entire state blanketed in some level of drought, with over 68 percent hit with levels classified as “extreme” or “exceptional.”

This follows a month in which Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought State of Emergency and state officials warned that 17 communities could run out of water.

Some farmers have already been forced to “liquidate herds” and abandon crops.

Market Watch reports: “Statewide, some 8 million acres of farmland rely on federal or state irrigation water.” And with California being the top agricultural producing state, effects are expected to be widespread.

“In this county alone, we’re in the billions of dollars of lost economic activity,” AgWeb reports Ryan Jacobsen, chief executive of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, as saying. “We do compete on a global scale, but the reality is that there very likely is going to be a shortage of certain commodities.”

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