Phoenix ? A nearly decade-long drought is changing the way Frank Martin does business at Crooked Sky Farms.

He still grows organic lettuce, beets, bok choi, cabbage and cauliflower on his 26-acre farm in Glendale, Ariz. But growing water-intensive crops like sweet corn is a thing of the past.

The drought is forcing a transformation at many Western farms. Like Crooked Sky, they’re shifting to different crops. They’re also scaling back their acreage, implementing conservation measures and installing water-saving devices.

“We really play the hand that we are dealt,” said Will Rosseau, a fourth-generation farmer. “We are always trying to shave production costs, make ourselves more efficient in terms of water.”

Rosseau also has stopped growing corn. And, because of surface water cutbacks, he has to spend more to pump ground water.

The drought has been wreaking havoc on Western states from the Mexico border to Canada for nearly a decade, but with Arizona facing its worst drought in recorded history, the past two years have been especially difficult for farmers in Phoenix.

For the second consecutive year, farmers who receive water from the Salt River Project, which delivers surface water from the Salt and Verde rivers, have had their allocations cut by one-third.

“Now all of the sudden everybody is worried,” Martin said.

SRP, one of the Phoenix area’s largest water suppliers, cut deliveries to all of its customers in January 2003 after levels in storage reservoirs fell, said Bruce Halon, SRP hydrologist.

Effects widespread

Farmer Frank Martin, of Crooked Sky Farms, checks the growth of a sample of onions, a crop he substituted for more water-intensive crops like corn. Martin worked April 15 in his in Glendale, Ariz., field. The drought is making farmers think twice about their practices. They are changing their cropping patterns, avoiding water-intensive crops, scaling back their plots, implementing conservation measures and installing water-saving devices.

Farmers in other parts of the West also are suffering. In parts of Idaho, the only farmers who are expected to get water this summer might be the ones with water rights dating to the 1800s. In New Mexico, a dam that provides water for many farmers is going to be at its lowest level on record this summer, said horticulturist John White.

“Even if the drought ends tomorrow it is still going to take a couple years to build back up our water supply,” said Nancy Watson, a San Miguel, N.M., farmer. “But I am ever hopeful.”

Gary Nabhan, of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, said the water cutbacks were increasing production costs, diminishing yields and increasing debt for the farmers.

Some growers have found ways to cope. Nabhan grows desert-adapted crops, such as tepary beans, which he said historically were the most widely grown bean in Arizona. Nabhan, who sells his produce to farmers markets and to restaurants, also grows sunflowers and blue corn.

Some farmers are just quitting.

“They are just throwing in the towel and selling out to developers,” Nabhan said, estimating that an average of 100 farms in Arizona have been going under every year since the drought began.

These onions grown by Frank Martin in Glendale, Ariz., are too small to sell.

“More ranchers and farmers in Arizona are going under than ever before,” he said.

The drought is forcing Colorado farmers to quit, as well.

Vess Quinlan, an alfalfa farmer in the high desert of southern Colorado, said the drought was going to put him out of business by next year.

“We can’t survive,” Quinlan said.

Rise in imports

Competition from overseas isn’t helping. The water restrictions have increased the farmers’ production costs by forcing them to get water from more expensive sources, which consumers see on the price tags for farm goods. Consequently more produce is being purchased from other countries — like Mexico, Argentina and Chile, Nabhan said.

A $400 million increase in fruit imports is projected for this year, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released in May. Similar gains are expected for vegetables.

“Everybody is really just holding their breath,” said Dee Logan, an Arizona Community Farmers’ Markets coordinator.

The U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service is forecasting the potential for water restrictions and widespread crop and pasture losses in parts of Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Montana.

When the drought ends, it may take years for farming to return to normal — if it ever does.