By KC Sheperd | Oklahoma Farm Report
The Oklahoma Emergency Drought Commission began with $24.5 million to administer on drought mitigation projects and has spent about $15.72 million to date, Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur said recently.
The commission has about $8 million that still needs to go out to districts across the state, Arthur said. She said the commission’s most recent meeting included a discussion about completing some of the projects that have already been funded.
“We know it is difficult to get some of those wells drilled, so we want to give those extensions there,” she said. “But on the pond cleanout, if you get rain – which hopefully you did – it makes it a little tough to complete those pond cleanouts.
“Doing some adjustments and hopefully giving some direction to the districts that folks need to put a timeline on when they might utilize some of those funds. And if they are unable to, then we can move down that list to other producers to really get those dollars out the door.”
Going forward, Arthur said she would like to see some longer-term solutions that will help mitigate drought.
“If that is different irrigation methods, if that is pond cleanout, water well drilling, I think those things help us long term, and we want to be conscious,” she said. “We never know what the weather is going to be like in Oklahoma, and long-term solutions are going to be important.”