Rollins announces Texas grant, visits Rio Grande

in Texas on Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a $280 million grant agreement between USDA and the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to provide economic relief to eligible Rio Grande Valley farmers and producers due to Mexico’s “ongoing failure to meet its water delivery obligations under the 1944 Water Treaty,” and then took a boat ride on the Rio Grande with border guards.

Rollins announced the grant agreement in McAllen, Texas, alongside Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas.

“Farmers and ranchers in the Rio Grande Valley have worked for generations to feed communities across Texas, the U.S., and beyond,” Rollins said in a news release.

“A lack of water has already ended sugarcane production in the valley and is putting the future of citrus, cotton, and other crops at risk. Through this grant, USDA is expediting much-needed economic relief while we continue working with federal, state, and local leadership to push for long-term solutions that protect Texas producers.” USDA noted that under the 1944 Water Treaty, Mexico is obligated to deliver water from the Rio Grande while the United States delivers water to Mexico from the Colorado River.

“Mexico’s persistent noncompliance with this treaty agreement has led to severe water shortages for Rio Grande Valley farmers and ranchers, devastating crops, costing jobs and threatening the local economy,” USDA said.

“As outlined in the grant agreement, TDA will oversee the implementation of these grant funds, including managing the sign-up process and distributing payments. Payments through this grant agreement will be issued to eligible producers who suffered eligible loss of water deliveries in calendar years 2023 and 2024.

“An eligible producer is one who was in the business of production agriculture and had a Texas Commission of Environmental Quality Division certificate authorizing the diversion of water in calendar years 2023 and/or 2024 in the Lower Rio Grande River Valley Water District in Texas,” USDA said.

Among the expected beneficiaries under the grant are the more than 100 farm families who were members of the farmer-owned Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers cooperative. The co-op announced in February 2024 that it had shuttered its mill and the farmers had plowed under the remaining acres of sugar cane due to lack of water. Jennifer Cervantes, a Washington-based lobbyist for the sugar co-op for 15 years, explained the situation at a House Appropriations subcommittee meeting in February.”Our cooperative is now in the liquidation phase, but our farmers continue to live in the region, and their families and former workers are still part of the RGV communities,” Cervantes said.

“I am here today to stress the urgency for the administration, with help from Congress, to reset our posture with Mexico on this treaty before more agriculture is plowed under and more livelihoods are lost.”

Cervantes told The Hagstrom Report in an email Tuesday that the farmers are now trying to grow other crops, and that many have switched to dryland farming. Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association,  said in an email, “Looking ahead, our hope is the U.S. government secures the water owed under the 1944 treaty as the cycle closes this year, thus delivering the region’s farmers from a nightmare created by decades of noncompliance.” Late today, the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said on X, “Mexico’s continued shortfalls in its water deliveries under the 1944 water-sharing treaty are decimating American agriculture — particularly farmers in the Rio Grande valley.”

“As a result, today for the first time, the U.S. will deny Mexico’s non-treaty request for a special delivery channel for Colorado River water to be delivered to Tijuana.

“After the grant announcement, Rollins wrote on X that she “got onto the Rio Grande today to see the challenges our farmers face, not just from water issues but from security issues that directly affect farming and ranching.”

–The Hagstrom Report