A lack of water throughout South Texas means there is little variety in the kinds of crops growing around the Rio Grande Valley.

Most farmers are instead growing sorghum, corn, or harvesting hay due to the lack of irrigation water.

Several farmers said this is causing bills to pile up.

“You're going to be paying back the bank, you're going to be paying back equipment loans, you're going to be using the money for those kind of things,” Edcouch farmer Brian Jones said. 

Jones is one of the farmers who applied for the $280 million in relief funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Texas Department of Agriculture.

The funding was announced on March 19, 2025, to provide economic relief to farmers struggling due to the lack of irrigation water in the area.

Those funds will be divided among all those who apply, and qualify, and their total acres.

“We're not really sure what that dollar amount is going to be, but anything is really going to help us because for the last three years we've been without water,” Jones said.

Any funds farmers like Jones receive will likely go toward expenses.

Water allocations from the Rio Grande are so limited that few water rights holders have excess water to sell.

“There’s not a whole lot of water out there to purchase, that's the sad part,” Sonny Hinojosa, a water advocate for Hidalgo County Irrigation District #2, said. “This money will probably offset the expenses and losses.”

Hinojosa said Mexico has made more water available after pressure from the White House as part of a 1944 water treaty requiring Mexico to provide the U.S. with water every five years.

Mexico recently provided 56,000 acre feet of water, but they still owe about 1 million acre feet of water due in October 2025.

Hinojosa said the recent transfer from Mexico is enough for farmers to get a “slight” credit to their water accounts.

“They'll start accumulating that water, and hopefully next spring — for the planting in February and March of next year — they'll have sufficient water,” Hinojosa said. “We're a long ways from having ample supply, without a doubt, but every little bit helps."

The deadline to apply for the aid is midnight on Friday, June 6, 2025. Farmers expect to hear back about the exact amount of money they'll get in the next few weeks.

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