We’re sorry that we’re giving such a quick turn-around timeframe, but our ending 2023 and restart for 2024 caused us to be out of sync with the deadline schedule for the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program survey We greatly appreciate them extending their deadline to make it possible for our readers to participate (if you didn’t already get the link and request for participating before).  Your response to this survey, by the Sunday, January 14^thdeadline would be very beneficial to identifying the priorities that you consider to be incorporated into the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s program.  The survey would take between 5 to 10 minutes – so click the link above.

Senator Julie Pazina of Las Vegas will launch the interim session for the Joint Interim Committee on Natural Resources when she calls the meeting to order at 9 a.m. on Monday, January 29^th.  The agenda for the committee meeting has not been made available at this point, but we do know that the site for the committee meeting will be Room 4401 of the Grant Sawyer office building in Las Vegas with a video link connecting Room 3138 of the Legislative Building in Carson City.  Those wishing to monitor the meeting from home will be able to do that by using the Legislature’s Website - https://www.leg.state.nv.us/ and by clicking on the “View Events” button on the upper right-hand corner of the webpage.

The committee for the Joint Interim Committee on Natural Resources are listed here.

The Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA), alongside Governor Lombardo and in partnership with Made in Nevada, presented the 2023 Nevada Agriculture, Food and Beverage Small Business of the Year Award to Blue Lizard Farm from Caliente.  Rodney Mehring, a Lincoln County Farm Bureau member is the owner of Blue Lizard Farm.

“Blue Lizard exemplifies excellence in Nevada agriculture,” said NDA Director J.J. Goicoechea. “Their dedication to providing fruits and vegetables to the community, coupled with their impactful participation in the Home Feeds Nevada program truly makes them deserving of this award.”

The award recognizes the extraordinary work done by agriculture, food and beverage small businesses in Nevada, a $142 million industry. Blue Lizard Farm received multiple nominations, including one describing them as a “small business with a big heart,” and another highlighted their service to Lincoln County, offering fresh produce to the community. 

Blue Lizard Farm was one of the first participants in the Home Feeds Nevada program, through which the NDA purchases food from Nevada producers to be distributed to food insecure populations through local food banks. In 2023, Blue Lizard Farm provided nearly 20,000 pounds of fresh, seasonal vegetables to fellow Nevadans in need through this program. 

“If Home Feeds Nevada did not exist, we probably would be out of business,” Mehring shared. “It provides a consistent market and bolsters our farm, allowing us to provide jobs in our community. The most important part, which is my favorite part, is that it allows me to provide fresh, healthy vegetables to people in need. I am very proud to be a part of that program, and I am grateful to have received this award today.”   

The award was presented to Blue Lizard Farm by Governor Lombardo and NDA Deputy Director Farris, with additional certificates presented by Lieutenant Governor Anthony, Secretary of State Aguilar, Assemblyman Watts, and University of Nevada, Reno, Extension Educator Staci Emm.

We shared the reminder in last week’s newsletter that time is drawing near the end for those who might wish to submit applications for consideration of participating in the voluntarily groundwater water rights retirement program.  The deadline for submitting applications is January 22, 2024.  Submitting an application is not a final, locked in commitment.  A list of interested water right sellers must be submitted to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources by February 1^st.

To review the Humboldt River Basin Water Authority webpage, which covers the background information and offers an application form that can be either downloaded or completed on line…click this link. The same type of information for the Central Nevada Water Authority’s program is located on their webpage. As we’ve shared before, this link will provide you with an overview of the program details on both of the entities and what they are offering for those who are interested in selling their water rights for retirement.

It is likely that having the amount of funding which was brought into play for this voluntary buy-out and retirement program will be difficult to forecast in the future.  It is also not certain what future water right decisions will be made as more and more groundwater basins deal with conflicts associated with more water being sought than is available.

Within this context, we want to encourage those who are interested in the Humboldt River system to use their new 2024 calendars to mark March 19^th as the next update for stakeholders.  The Nevada Division of Water Resources has announced the details for this meeting that starts at 1 p.m. and is available in person or virtually on “Microsoft Teams.”  As it was highlighted in the announcement, the Nevada Division of Water Resources staff have been reviewing the presentations made during the three meetings in 2023 where proposals were offered on what might be actions to address the conflicts of capture issues involving junior groundwater right owners and senior surface water right owners.

Thank you for the readers who shared their input to the five-question survey that we provided in last week’s newsletter.  For those who weren’t able to participate in that request for information, we’re rerunning the survey to give as many as possible the chance to share their thoughts.

As we indicated -- here are the 5 questions we’re asking for your response:

• On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the most positive) what is your attitude toward 2024 in terms of being a profitable year for your operation?
• What do you consider to be the biggest challenge as you view the upcoming year? (This is an open-ended question that you can type in whatever you believe to be your view.)
•  Please rank these concerns (with 1 being the biggest problem) you think facing Nevada Agriculture in 2024:
• Cost of Production
• Market Prices
• Water Availability
• Government Regulations
• Affordable Labor
• Other (Please describe what you think “Other” is)
• Based on your insights to what Nevada Farm Bureau does for Farm Bureau members, please describe what you believe should be the organization’s top priority for the coming year: (This is an open-ended question that you can type in whatever you believe to be your view.)

We are anxious for you to click on the link and give us your input to the questions in the survey…

The Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition and Tri-County Weed Control are joining together to host the 18th Annual Invasive Species Conference at the Bristlecone Convention Center (150 6^th St) in Ely, NV.

This link will take you to the spot where you can handle your on-line registration and also locate the information for the planned schedule, which will kick off at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, January 17^th.