There are interventions gov't can take beyond subsidies. Some that have devastating consequences for some.  Ask the farmers in the Wiggins area who, several years ago, had the state water engineer shut their wells off due to the controversial issue of lack of appropriate augmentation plans.  Essentially overnight valuable irrigated land became dry farm ground of pasture.  Augmentation is something that anyone wanting to make intelligent statements about water needs to understand.  Farmers spend thousands of dollars on engineers who set up augmentation plans to minimize the effect their water use has on the river and aquifers.