UC Davis Water Policy for Food Security

UC Davis Water Policy for Food Security Global Conference

By Laurie Greene, Editor

A Global Conference for Water Policy for Food Security was held at UC Davis earlier this week to focus on global ground water supplies. Many speakers came from around the world to talk about water supplies in their own countries.

The take-home message: Supplies are limited, but growers are being very efficient and groundwater recharge is a priority.

Josette Lewis, associate director of the World Food Center at UC Davis said, “When I joined UC Davis, it was very clear that water is something in which this campus has enormous technical expertise and has expertise to inform and engage in state water policy,” she said.

“We are working with everything from farmers to state agencies that manage water resources. Part of the vision of the World Food Center is, how do we expand that impact? How can UC Davis have an impact on national and international issues? How do we get more benefit for society from what we do? It became very obvious that leveraging the expertise we had here in California to an international discussion of issues made a lot of sense.”

Lewis noted that the conversations during the two-day conference were an exchange of ideas on groundwater sustainability, “I think the quality of the discussion over the last few days exceeded our expectations,” she said.

“We really brought in some of the world’s leading experts in these areas. From talking to the participants some of them are walking away with a new and energized way of thinking about how we can create solutions to address the sustainability of our water supply and ensure that we have water available for food production globally,” Lewis said.

World Food Center at the University of California, Davis

International Food Policy Research Institute

Join the conversation on Twitter at #WaterSecurity

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:07-07:00October 8th, 2015|

JPA Could Save Temperance Flat Dam

Joint Power of Authority Could Save Temperance Flat Dam

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Deputy Editor

A Joint Power of Authority (JPA) is being formed to help preserve money authorized for construction of the Temperance Flat Dam with the passage of California Proposition 1, the Water Bond in 2014. Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual, has been engaged in getting the project off the ground.

“It is unfortunate what has happened to the Friant Water Authority leadership and the lack of suitable talent there to run with it. The situation has adversely impacted getting a Temperance Flat water storage program in front of the California Water Commission, whose nine governor-appointed members are responsible for advising the director of California Department of Water Resources, approving rules and regulations, and monitoring and reporting on the construction and operation of the State Water Project. The Water Commission, which elicits preferred priorities from the agricultural industry, will award bond money in early 2017.

The Water Bond approved by voters last fall designates $2.7 billion for water storage. While this amount will help subsidize the construction of the dam, Nelsen noted there needs to be better organization in its planning, “because when we negotiated money for storage planning, we were set on two locations, Temperance Flat, behind Friant dam and east of Fresno, and Sites Reservoir, north of Sacramento. Of course, all along, we have known that farmers were investing a lot of money into it as well, but you have to have a plan,” Nelsen said.

Nelsen explained the JPA consists of city and county leaders as well as farm industry leaders from Merced to Bakersfield, including those from Fresno, Madera, Kings, Kern and Tulare Counties, and will require everyone’s cooperation to get the job done. “The inability to sustain some leadership at the Friant system right now has stalled our ability to make something happen in that regard.

“If we can use the talent within our counties right now to generate some of the proposals until we have the ability to get additional water experts online, I would give those who are working on the JPA all the credit in the world,” Nelsen said.

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:08-07:00October 6th, 2015|

Bayer CropScience Horticulture Symposium Builds Relationships

Bayer CropScience Horticulture Symposium Builds Global Relationships for Collaborative Problem-Solving

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Deputy Editor

Nearly 200 professionals in the horticultural industry from across the food chain and the value chain, and from Europe and North, Central and South America, gathered this week at the Bayer CropScience Horticulture Symposium in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Attendees were treated to an inspirational mix of lectures, panel discussions, as well as an interactive poster session, all incorporating forward-thinking sustainable practices into contemporary agriculture. Among the crops discussed were tomatoes, citrus, grapes, potatoes, bananas.

Rob Schrick, strategic management lead, Bayer CropScience Horticulture, based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, said the event was the company’s second in a series of horticulture symposiums focused on international collaboration and problem-solving. “This is about bringing the best and brightest from across our industry,” said Schrick, “from influencers and universities to industry members like ourselves and the media. It’s about getting these creative minds together and discussing solutions. The solutions may not come from the symposium itself, but the connections that are made—you don’t know what will yield from those relationships.”

Jim Chambers, director of marketing, Bayer CropScience Food Production, said the Horticulture Symposium was all about sharing information on best management practices. “Bayer is a leader in the crop protection business within the horticultural space around the world, and this is a real opportunity to bring all of us within horticulture across the food chain and the value chain to talk, from the grower, to the processor, and to the consumer. It is a wonderful opportunity to work together to solve some very difficult challenges.”

“And, vivid to all attendees, was that members of the fruit and vegetable industry throughout the Americas have similar challenges to overcome,” noted Chambers. “It was very interesting; the issues that we talk and hear about in the specialty crop states such as California, Florida and Texas, are very much the same issues that people, for example in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, or Central America, are facing. These issues do not go across just states or counties; they reach across the globe in solving these problems,” Chambers said.

Among the speakers were growers, commodity specialists from the industry and academia, and experts on sustainability practices, professionals on Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs), Bayer CropScience specialists and major agricultural association leaders such as Tom Nassif, ceo, Western Growers Association (WGA) and Dana Merrill, president, Mesa Vineyard Management Inc.

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields of health care and agriculture. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture.

(Photo features Rob Schrick, Bayer CropScience – Horticulture strategic management lead)

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:08-07:00October 2nd, 2015|

WUD: Yes on Federal Milk Marketing Order

Continued Coverage on Milk Hearing

WUD: Yes on Federal Milk Marketing Order

Hearing in Clovis is the Super Bowl for California Dairy Producers

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

Anja Raudabaugh, CEO of Western United Dairymen, which represents half of the dairies in California, is closely watching the USDA special hearing to evaluate four proposals to convert California’s State Marketing Order to the Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO).

On September 22, in Clovis, Raudabaugh said, “This is an historic day. It is like a Super Bowl for California dairy producer. We welcome the opportunity for fair prices and better prices for California dairy producers, and that is what we are to support today. We are hoping to get better opportunities for our producers.”

“We are going to be testifying in support of the Cooperatives Proposal,” said Raudabaugh.

The dairy cooperatives – California Dairies Inc., Land O’ Lakes, and Dairy Farmers of America – say a federal pricing structure would fix the inequity that exists between the state’s dairy farmers and the rest of the nation.

Raudabaugh said the industry will need to see what the USDA actually delivers in terms of a federal order. “We have a proposal that we’d like to see happen,” she said. “It all depends on what the ultimate outcome is. We will review it with our membership at that time.”

It could take up to a year for the USDA to issue its proposal.

___________________________________________

Western United Dairymen

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:08-07:00October 2nd, 2015|

Armyworms Invade Rice

Luis Espino: Armyworms Invade Rice

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

Larva of the armyworm, Mythimna unipuncta.
Photo by Jack Kelly Clark, UC IPM.

Farmers face many threats to their crops on a daily basis. Luis Espino, rice farm advisor UC ANR Cooperative Extension, Colusa County, said rice farmers are on the lookout for two caterpillar infestations during the year when armyworms invade rice fields. “The first one occurs sometime in June,” Espino said. “At that time all they do is just eat the foliage, and you can usually see it when you walk into a field. Nevertheless, the rice has a very good capacity to recover from that type of injury.” Espino’s UC Rice Blog explains it is difficult to accurately estimate yield losses due to early armyworm damage because it can reduce tillering, delay the crop, and cause uneven maturity.

“Heading” occurs when the rice plant prepares to enter its reproductive phase. The first sign, called the ‘booting’ stage, is when the leaf stem that conceals the developing panicle bulges. Then the tip of the developing panicle emerges from the stem and continues to grow. Rice is said to be at the ‘heading’ stage when the panicle is fully visible. Flowering begins a day after heading has completed. As the flowers open they shed their pollen on each other so that pollination can occur. Flowering can continue for about 7 days. (Source: Rice Development, Ricepedia.)

“The second infestation usually occurs in mid- to late-August when the rice is heading out,” Espino said. “At that time, armyworms can feed on the panicles, [causing the kernels to dry before filling], resulting in blanks [without kernels to harvest] on the panicles and broken panicle branches. That’s when armyworms are more important.”

Espino said that the first infestation this year was relatively large, making it harder for the treatments to control the armyworms as they devastated the rice fields. “There were some areas in fields where the rice was down to the waters,” Espino said. “so all the foliage was consumed, and sometimes only a little stem was left standing.”

During the second armyworm infestation, however, Espino said the rice fields were not as badly affected as they had been in the first attack. “We did see some fields with armyworm injury,” Espino said,“ and some farmers had to treat their fields. The numbers were just so big that the treatments were not controlling them.”

Resources:

UCANR/CA Rice Blog, “Estimating armyworm injury.”
Ricepedia

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:27:09-07:00September 30th, 2015|

Water and Nitrogen Use Research

Andre Biscaro on Water and Nitrogen Use Research

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

Many jobs exist solely for the improvement of agriculture. Andre Biscaro, agriculture and environmental issues advisor at the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Cooperative Extension, Los Angeles and Ventura Counties said his job is to find ways to improve water and nitrogen use in fertilizing crops such as strawberries and celery.

“We’re measuring how much nitrogen the plant takes in and at what time,” Biscaro said, “so we can make more accurate recommendations for nitrogen fertilizers. It’s the same for water. We’re monitoring the crop growth of the strawberry plants—how deep the roots go and how the canopy develops—so we can make more accurate water recommendations. We’re assessing fields in Santa Maria and we are implementing the second phase here in Ventura County, Santa Maria and Watsonville.”

Biscaro is researching in strawberries and celery how to push salts in the soil beyond the root zone, the point beyond which plants will generally seek water unless they are stressed. “It’s essential to install soil moisture sensors at the end of your root system,”Biscaro said, “to make sure the soil is saturated every time you irrigate and then you need to push the water down. And it’s also really important to calculate the amount of water you’re applying because a lot of growers are irrigating without knowing how much water they are applying.”

“We calculate the leaching fraction [the portion of irrigation water that infiltrates past the root zone] based on the sensitivity of the crop to salinity and to the salinity of the water,” Biscaro explained. “And by only knowing how much water you’re applying, you can add a certain leaching fraction to your crop,” Biscaro said.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:27:09-07:00September 29th, 2015|

Lygus Bug Control in Strawberries

Lygus Bug Control in Strawberries Can Prevent Significant Damage

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Deputy Editor

Adult Lygus Bug, Jack Kelly Clark, UC IPM

Adult lygus bug, Lygus hesperus.
(Photo by Jack Kelly Clark, UC IPM)

In the coastal areas of California where the majority of strawberries are grown, the top pest pressure comes from the lygus bug. Hillary Thomas, senior production research manager with Watsonville-based California Strawberry Commission, works on lygus bug control in strawberries, as it causes significant damage to the crop each season.

“We conservatively attribute between $150 and $250 million in damage each year to the lygus bug alone,” Thomas said. “We have only a few tools to handle this pest, including insecticide and vacuums, that can be used for the strawberry industry.”

Thomas explained vacuum use is widespread by both conventional and organic growers despite its drawbacks, beginning with the huge investment required by the grower. The vacuum is generally tractor-mounted with three or four vacuum fume hoods to one hydraulic system, and the entire vacuum system runs off the tractor’s PTO (power takeoff). The vacuum is so difficult to remove, it is typically installed on the tractor for the entire season.

Therefore, current research aims to make the vaccuum more useful, according to Thomas, by focusing on technological innovations to improve vacuum efficiency. She explained, “We are literally trying to suck up as many bugs as possible by moving the largest cubic volume of air and killing all the insects that move through the vacuum. We have created some standard operating procedures for vacuums as well as recommended short-term modifications to improve their efficiency by 25 percent. The Commission has also developed a series of trainings to disseminate information on the best management practices vacuums for growers.

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:09-07:00September 28th, 2015|

Celery Management Research

Andre Biscaro on Celery Management Research to Improve Water and Nitrogen Use

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

Ongoing research continually improves the agriculture industry. Andre Biscaro, agriculture and environmental issues advisor at the University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Cooperative Extension, Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, described current trials in celery management research, sponsored by the California Celery Research Advisory Board.

“We’re monitoring water and nitrogen use based on best management practices,” Biscaro said. “We evaluate ‘best management’ practices using the soil nitrate quick test. That gives us a really good estimate of how much nitrogen is in the soil, and we can accomplish the test in just about an hour.” The trial also incorporates data from weather stations to calculate the amount of applied water.

“This trial and research actually monitors the amount of water and nitrogen we’re using and how much yield we’re getting under various best management scenarios,” Biscaro said, “and compares our practices to what the grower usually does.” Ultimately, the trial will help determine the yield of a celery field using best management practices, and how much water and nitrogen are required to achieve that yield.

Biscaro said the grower he has been working with to conduct the trial was already highly successful with soil and water management in the specific celery field under study. “He really knew what he was doing, and the nitrogen management was quite decent as well. So I believe there are opportunities for improvement in the industry, but the grower was actually doing quite well in this particular field I monitored.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:27:09-07:00September 25th, 2015|

Plants Do Not USE Water…They Borrow it!

Plants Transpire Most of the Water They Use!

Editor’s note: California Ag Today interviewed Allan Fulton, an Irrigation and Water Resources Advisor, UC Cooperative Extension Tehama County, in Redbluff CA, to comment on the debate about the agricultural industry’s use of water and to focus on a critical but disregarded process—that all plants transpire, even plants cultivated for the crops we eat.

Allan Fulton, Irrigation and Water Resources Advisor

CalAgToday: We hear in the media that our crops are using too much water. And while all plants need water to grow food, we also know that a high percentage of water taken up by all plants actually transpires back into the atmosphere, to form clouds and precipitation, right?

Fulton: Yes, when plants transpire, the water just returns to the local hydrologic cycle, leaving the harvested crop that we distribute elsewhere in the US or in the world actually very low in water content.

CalAgToday: When we think about transpiration, are the plants actually “borrowing” the water?

Fulton: Yes. We get a lot of questions about why we irrigate our crops so much, and it comes from the general public not being as close to farming everyday. The truth is, plant transpiration is a necessary biological process. The water cools the tree so it stays healthy and exits the leaves through special cells called stomata. While the stomates are open to allow water to transpire, carbon dioxide enters and is used in photosynthesis, making sugars and carbohydrates for the plant to create the fruits and nuts that we eat. So, an inadequately watered plant cannot take in enough carbon dioxide during transpiration, resulting in defective fruits and nuts that are smaller, shriveled, cracked—all the things the typical consumer does not want to buy.

Plants cannot gain carbon dioxide without simultaneously losing water vapor.[1]

CalAgToday: Can we say 95 or 99% of the water that is taken up by the plant gets transpired and definitely not wasted?

Fulton: Definitely. We converted to pressurized irrigation systems, micro sprinklers and mini sprinklers, so we have a lot more control over how much water we apply at any one time. We do not put water out in acre-feet or depths of 4-6 inches at a time anymore. So, much like when rainfall occurs, we can measure it in tenths, or 1 or 2 inches at most. As a result, the water doesn’t penetrate the soil very deeply, maybe only 1 or 2 feet each irrigation.

We are very efficient with the water, but because we deliver it in small doses, we have to irrigate very frequently. That is why we see irrigation systems running a lot, but they are systems that efficiently stretch our water supply and do not waste it.

CalAgToday: But again, the vast majority of the water that the tree is taking up is being transpired, right?

Fulton: Yes, most of the time, at least 90% of the water that we apply taken up through the tree and transpired so that photosynthesis can happen.

CalAgToday: And transpiration increases on a hot day?

Fulton: Yes, we do get a little bit of loss from surface evaporation from wet soil, but we try to control that with smaller wetting patterns—drip-confined wetting patterns. When you think about it, the heat of the day is in the afternoon when many irrigation systems don’t run because of higher energy costs. There are incentives not to pump in the middle of the afternoon, but those who do try to confine the wetted area to limit evaporation. And the hot hours of the day make up about 4 hours of a 24-hour cycle, so we irrigate mostly during the nighttime and early morning hours to lesson evaporative loss.

CalAgToday: Growers are doing everything they can to conserve water. If the trees and vines are all transpiring most of their irrigated water, why is using water to grow food a problm?

Fulton: I think the emphasis throughout the United States has always been to provide a secure food supply. That security has many benefits, economically and politically; and in the end, we are trying to provide the general public with good quality, safe food at the best price possible.

______________________________________________

[1] Debbie Swarthout and C.Michael Hogan. 2010. Stomata. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington DC.

The California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) is a program unit in the Water Use and Efficiency Branch, Division of Statewide Integrated Water Management, California Department of Water Resources (DWR) that manages a network of over 145 automated weather stations in California. CIMIS was developed in 1982 by DWR and the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). It was designed to assist irrigators in managing their water resources more efficiently. Efficient use of water resources benefits Californians by saving water, energy, and money.

The CIMIS user base has expanded over the years. Currently, there are over 40,000 registered CIMIS data users, including landscapers, local water agencies, fire fighters, air control board, pest control managers, university researchers, school teachers, students, construction engineers, consultants, hydrologists, government agencies, utilities, lawyers, weather agencies, and many more.

California Ag Today2021-07-23T14:31:38-07:00September 23rd, 2015|

Ag in the Classroom

Teaching Ag in the Classroom

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

As the disconnect between consumers and the source of their food grows, many students do not understand where their food comes from. California teachers are doing their part to bridge the educational gap by teaching ag in the classroom.

Kathy Yager, a fifth grade teacher at Fowler Unified School District, as well as a farmer, brings agriculture education to her students in several ways. “We’ve been using programs through the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom,” Yager said.

“I’ve participated in Taste Test grants,” Yager said. The grant allows teachers to bring in a new ag product, “and the students get the opportunity to try those things.” Yager said it also helps expose students to new products, and allows them to become better informed consumers in the future.

“We also have visits from the Dairy Council of California and students get to see a dairy cow and how the whole milking process works,” Yager said.

In addition Yager brings farmers, including her own brother, into the classroom to educate students, “and [they] show students how agriculture works and how a product gets from the field, to the stores, and to them.”

California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom (CFAIC)

More than 7 million California students are fed, clothed and housed with products grown right here on our farms, in our fields and within our forests. California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom is dedicated to helping students and teachers across our great state gain an understanding of how agriculture provides the daily essentials necessary to make our society and our world function.

From the cotton in our jeans and the food on our tables, to our landscaped yards and playing fields, we all depend on agriculture. The survival of this vital industry depends on educating and encouraging the next generation of decision-makers. We do this by engaging students and educators in meaningful ways: developing and sharing unique classroom curriculum, supporting school garden efforts, spreading our message at local Ag Days, honoring outstanding educators, rewarding students who learn and write stories about agriculture and so much more.

Featured Programs:

Imagine this… Story Writing Contest

Meet Academic Content Standards for California schools through this creative writing contest!

Create a positive learning experience that promotes reading, writing and the arts, and furthers the understanding of agriculture in our lives by using this award-winning contest in your classroom.

PUBLISHED AUTHOR

State-winning authors will have their stories published in an illustrated book and will be distributed to school libraries and classrooms across the state!

DEADLINE: NOV. 1

Entries must be postmarked by November 1, annually.
Download entry form (PDF, 331 KB)

California Fruits and Vegetables Seasonal Chart (PDF, 18 KB)

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:09-07:00September 22nd, 2015|

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California Ag News…
At Your Fingertips!

UC Davis Water Policy for Food Security Global Conference

By Laurie Greene, Editor

Joint Power of Authority Could Save Temperance Flat Dam

Bayer CropScience Horticulture Symposium Builds Global Relationships for Collaborative Problem-Solving

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Deputy Editor

WUD: Yes on Federal Milk Marketing Order

Hearing in Clovis is the Super Bowl for California Dairy Producers

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

Luis Espino: Armyworms Invade Rice

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

Andre Biscaro on Water and Nitrogen Use Research

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

Lygus Bug Control in Strawberries Can Prevent Significant Damage

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Deputy Editor

Andre Biscaro on Celery Management Research to Improve Water and Nitrogen Use

Plants Transpire Most of the Water They Use!

Plants cannot gain carbon dioxide without simultaneously losing water vapor.[1]

Teaching Ag in the Classroom

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

Featured Programs:

Meet Academic Content Standards for California schools through this creative writing contest!

Create a positive learning experience that promotes reading, writing and the arts, and furthers the understanding of agriculture in our lives by using this award-winning contest in your classroom.

PUBLISHED AUTHOR

State-winning authors will have their stories published in an illustrated book and will be distributed to school libraries and classrooms across the state!

DEADLINE: NOV. 1

Entries must be postmarked by November 1, annually. Download entry form (PDF, 331 KB)

California Fruits and Vegetables Seasonal Chart (PDF, 18 KB)

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

California Ag News… At Your Fingertips!

Entries must be postmarked by November 1, annually.
Download entry form (PDF, 331 KB)

California Ag News…
At Your Fingertips!