Thinking out loud, a lot of these farmers might be Acecia farmers. As such, they hold fairly senior water rights out West. If they stop using their allotted water, then they lose their water rights to the next one in line.
Assuming the next one in line is a metro area, like LA or Albuquerque, then this would a long term way of getting water to these areas. On the other hand, this water could go towards conservation areas, for say fish, that the EPA, or whoever, wants protected.
Again, this is just conjecture, but you never know.
Why aren’t we building more desalinization plants, water towers, water purification centers, then infrastructure? There is always going to be more than enough, surely the whales won’t miss much.