Mexico is offering water to South Texas. But there’s a catch farmers aren’t happy about.

Rio Grande Valley farmers who have seen their industry devastated by insufficient rain and depleting water reserves have been offered up a modest but helpful amount of water for their dried-up land.

The farmers are hesitating to accept it.

Farmers and the irrigation districts that supply water to farmers remain in a stalemate with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality over 120,000 acre-feet of water that Mexico offered up to the U.S.

This is the catch: If the farmers accept the water now, they will have to give up the water they already own and need for next year.

In mid-October, farmers and irrigation districts met with representatives from TCEQ and the…