Navel Orangeworm Pressure Imminent

Almond Growers Get Ready to Treat for Navel Orangeworm

Almond and Pistachio growers should be ready to fight back on a particular seasonal pest this year.

Joel Siegel is a research Entomologist with USDA ARS in the Fresno County Office in Parlier. He is an expert on troubling pest for Almonds and Pistachios called NavelOrangeworm. He said growers need to be ready.

“Ok the big thing this year is because of the heat. If the almonds, if the non [ prowlers?] are splitting earlier you better be prepared to be spraying earlier,” said Siegel. “Its really based on nut vulnerability in my opinion, so you have to make your plans now. Get your materials secured so that you’re ready to move.” he added.

Growers need to get ready to protect their crops. Siegel discusses how another important crop, Pistachios need to be protected from the Navel Orangeworm.

“With pistachios, its harder to predict vulnerability, but all of this heat means we have the potential for an additional generation at least. So there could be more pressure. And again there is going to be more of a need to scout, and again make your plans in advance, and make sure you have your materials lined up.

Because of the daytime heat, Siegel said we are ahead of last year, which was a bad year for NOW.

“Well what we are in terms of heat units, is depending where anywhere between four to eleven days ahead where we were last year. And again, from talking to people on the nonpareil seem to be, maybe eight to ten days earlier this year,”

Siegel said just like almonds, being prepared is the most essential.

“If everything is vulnerable earlier you have to be prepared to move earlier than you’re used to doing it. With pistachios, there might be that dragged out cluster development, and again if people are going to have to harvest late, there is going to be more pressure on the back end.” said Siegel.

Siegel was speaking at the recent Southern San Joaquin Valley Almond Symposium in Kerman California.

2016-05-31T19:35:29-07:00May 30th, 2014|

‘Curtailments’ and other woes tighten supplies

Source: Kate Campbell; Ag Alert

Facing severe drought, California farmers and ranchers are bracing for an increasing flow of bad news about water supplies.

State officials said last week they’re preparing to curtail diversions to holders of certain water rights; federal authorities said they have no immediate plans to increase the “zero” allocation for most of their farm water customers; and a new report detailed the pressure surface-water shortages have placed on California groundwater basins.

The State Water Resources Control Board said it is preparing to curtail water diversions from watersheds that drain into the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, the Tulare Lake Basin, and the Russian and Eel rivers.

In times of shortage, state water law says if there’s not enough water for all water right holders, the most junior will be curtailed before restrictions are imposed on more senior water right holders. Seniority is determined by the type and age of the water right.

Riparian water rights are generally the most senior rights, followed by older appropriative rights and then newer rights. Any water supply remaining in the watershed after appropriative water rights are shut off must be shared on a “correlative basis among riparian users.”

In most watersheds where curtailment is likely, the water board said notices will go to post-1914 water rights holders beginning in May; thousands of individuals and water agencies hold such rights, although it is not clear how many will receive the curtailment notices.

Holders of pre-1914 rights are also expected to receive curtailment notices, later this year, and it’s anticipated that supply this summer and fall won’t meet all riparian demands, requiring riparian users also to reduce or stop using water.

Given the dire shortages expected in coming months, the water board said after curtailment, it expects to allow limited diversions for public health and safety needs where no other water supply is available.

“We encourage management of water supplies to protect public health and safety, but we also must emphasize the need for adequate food production,” said Danny Merkley, water resources director for the California Farm Bureau Federation. “Having healthful, local food available is a big part of ensuring human health and safety.”

Also last week, the state Department of Water Resources’ final snow survey of the year found more bare ground than snow, with snow water content at only 18 percent of average for the date.

Officials at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the Central Valley Project, said last week they don’t know “when or if we’ll be doing another (water) allocation announcement.”

Economic losses in the billions of dollars are anticipated due to the zero water allocation for CVP agricultural contractors. The Friant Water Authority said its contractors are preparing for a “financial and social calamity,” as they prepare for the first-ever call on Friant water to supply San Joaquin River exchange contractors and honor their historic river water rights. The agency said all-out efforts continue to seek an emergency solution to the water cutoff.

The state’s citrus belt—Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties, where the bulk of fresh-market citrus is grown on about 50,000 acres—faces estimated losses of $3 billion. Many farms do not have access to groundwater or other alternative water sources, and some orchards are being pushed out.

“It is incredible that a system created to preserve agricultural production in this state is being leveraged to service environmental needs at greater levels than are necessary, while agriculture is left to go dry,” said Joel Nelsen, president of Exeter-based California Citrus Mutual.

The groundwater report is available at www.water.ca.gov/waterconditions.

Curtailment information by watershed is available at www.swrcb.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/drought/analysis/.

2016-05-31T19:37:59-07:00May 6th, 2014|

A Rant on the War for Water — or perhaps just a restatement of the obvious

Commentary by Laurie Greene, Editor

The War for Water has become more complex, fractious, and dire.

 

The battles are marked by staggering amounts of purchased-but-undelivered water supplies; broken contract obligations;

 

local water districts scrambling to find any source of water at any price; water theft; water diversion; water re-diversion; fishery restoration;

 

rapidly escalating overdraft and land subsidence conditions; lack of river improvements; reservoirs drying and dying; an epidemic of well drilling;

 

aging water infrastructure; farmers resorting to water sales profits instead of crop profits; fallowed fields;

 

threatened species, pitting environmental conservationists against farmer environmentalists and humans versus fish;

 

fish trucking; climate change confusion and unpreparedness; deals for more water imports; decisions for no Delta exports; water supply runoff;

 

compromised and halted agricultural research; approvals, denials, exceptions. . .

Drought - No Water Logo

 

We are employing politicians, lawyers, government agencies, scientists, and institutions of education to discuss and solve our water crisis. . .

 

and money has been thrown at farmers, food banks, and emergency services;

 

but we are not investing in, creating, and aggressively launching new water storage, balanced and effective environmental solutions for threatened species;

 

improved sewage disposal; enforced urban water conservation; modern water conveyance and infrastructure; groundwater renewal; wide-use of desalination technology.

 

We face curtailed critical agricultural research; unemployment; increased crime–according to some; increased health costs; declining water quality; disappearing snowpack;

 

school and business shutdowns; mortgage forfeiture; homelessness;

 

community failures; permanent loss of farm laborers; food shortages; increased stress on food banks with dwindling food supplies;

 

increased food insecurity and exposure to imported food safety risks; raised food and water prices; possible loss of domestic and foreign markets; threatened economies—

 

‘not to mention sheer human stress, panic, and grief.

 

Yet, we are urging, pleading, debating, meeting, emailing, tweeting, phoning, rallying, regulating, appealing, suing, petitioning, curtailing, strategizing; lobbying . . .

 

What academic or worldly discipline – geography, sociology, biology, chemistry, economics, politics, psychology, medicine – or realm of life – will NOT be affected?

 

Who does not need food, water, air, and an income?

 

At what point will we hit bottom, having suffered so much that we are finally forced to compromise and reach a survivable compromised existence?

 

At that point, will it even be possible?

 

 

Sources and Inspiration:

Friant Waterline, “Today’s River And Salmon”, http://friantwaterline.org/todays-river-and-salmon/

Merced Sun-Star, “Merced Irrigation District Seals Deal with State for More Irrigation Water”, mercedsunstar.com/2014/04/23/3615393/mid-seals-deal-with-state-for.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1

Western Farm Press, “Drought Chokes Research Efforts in California”, http://westernfarmpress.com/irrigation/drought-chokes-ag-research-efforts-california?page=5

Maven’s Notebook, in general, http://mavensnotebook.com

Salt, “Fields And Farm Jobs Dry Up With California’s Worsening Drought”, http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/04/22/303726931/fields-and-farm-jobs-dry-up-with-californias-worsening-drought

State Water Resources Control Board; ACWA eNews; ACWA; Western United Dairymen

2016-05-31T19:38:01-07:00April 25th, 2014|

U.N. World Water Day, 2014

Excerpted from: Grants Pass; OR (PRWEB)

To water advocate and researcher Sharon Kleyne, United Nations World Water Day is one of the most important days of the year.

The annual March 22 observance, says Kleyne, offers an opportunity to reflect on advances and setbacks in the ongoing global fresh water supply crisis, and to further educate the public about this critical issue.

Kleyne believes that fresh water supply should be the number one priority of nearly every government on Earth.

Sharon Kleyne is Founder of Bio-Logic Aqua Research, a fresh water, atmospheric and health research and product development center.

According to Kleyne, one of the most comprehensive and readable books about the global fresh water supply is Steven Solomon‘s classic, Water: the Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilization (Harper Collins 2009).

Kleyne first interviewed Solomon, in Rome at the time, on World Water Day 2010. On subsequent appearances, Solomon has offered updates.

In his book, Solomon describes water as “Earth’s most indispensable resource.” Fresh water, according to Solomon, is critical to human survival and economic development, and is more important than oil.

Fresh water wars remains an important factor in US politics, says Solomon. Imported water is critical to desert cities such as Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

In recent years, Kleyne adds, Colorado has been having its own internal water shortages while California is in the mist of the worst drought in a century. In California, water allocation to farmers from the Central Valley Project and State Water Project have been greatly curtailed, forcing farmers in the nation’s number one agricultural state, to pump ground water for irrigation.

Kleyne noted that 1.6 billion people worldwide lack access to abundant and sanitary water (http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/scarcity.shtml).

Ironically, she says, most Americans do not drink the recommended eight to ten glasses of water per day even where available and inexpensive.

2016-05-31T19:38:08-07:00March 20th, 2014|

California to Ease Water Restrictions

Excerpted from Sharon Bernstein; Reuters

Drought-plagued California will ease some protection for fish in the fragile San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, officials said Tuesday, a move expected to make more water available for farming and ease political tensions in an election year.

“California’s agriculture is critical to the world’s food supply,” said assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, who represents part of the San Joaquin Valley, who had lobbied hard against the restrictions. “An inability to produce that food would clearly be devastating to health and human safety not only in California but around the globe.”

Citing recent rains, regulators said Tuesday, there was enough water in the state’s reservoirs now to partially ease restrictions.

“We were quite concerned at that time about the issue of public health and safety,” Tom Howard, executive director of the State Water Resources Control Board, said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. “This really had the markings of a historic drought.”

Recent storms dropped nearly a foot of rain in some areas, boosting reservoir levels and the snowpack that the state relies on for drinking water in the spring, but still leaving supplies way below normal for this time of year.

Earlier this month, concern that the state was about to restrict water supplies to farmers even further swept through the agricultural community, spurring intensive pushback and a series of tense meetings with water regulators in the administration of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.

“We are very concerned that if the current proposal as reported to us is enacted, it will have significant near- and long-term effects on the California economy and, more importantly, will not achieve the desired water supply security intended,” U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Congressmen Jim Costa and John Garamendi, all Democrats, wrote in a letter to the water board.

Under the new rules announced Tuesday, which Howard said may be modified again next month, the two massive public water projects responsible for pumping in the Delta will be able to deliver it to farmers and others, once the state determines that there is enough flowing to meet the health and sanitation needs of residents.

Scott Shapiro, an attorney specializing in water issues for the Sacramento firm Downey Brand, said expanding the allowable uses of tight water supplies was not just important for farmers.

“It’s not just for agriculture, because there are other needs that may be contracted for that go beyond health and safety,” Shapiro said. “It could include other municipal, industrial and agricultural needs.

In addition to allowing more of the water pumped from the Delta to be used for purposes other than meeting health and safety needs, the state planned to reduce by about a third the amount of water that the projects were required to leave in the Delta as a way of protecting fish, Howard said during the press briefing.

Mark Cowin, Director of California Department of Water Resources, commented that fish and wildlife experts consulted by his department said that endangered species in the Delta would not be harmed by the looser rules.

2016-05-31T19:38:08-07:00March 20th, 2014|

Federal Plans Begin to Address Climate Realities

Source: Dru Marion; CalCAN

Despite producing mixed results for sustainable agriculture interests, President Obama’s 2015 budget request is an encouraging sign that the federal government is getting serious about climate change, and particularly about adapting to its impacts.

The President’s proposal includes a $1 billion dollar Climate Resilience Fund, which is intended to strengthen preparedness of states and communities for increasingly extreme weather like floods, droughts, and wildfires.

The fund would support investment in research, technologies, and infrastructure across numerous agencies and sectors, including agriculture.

Word of the fund first came out in February, when Obama met with growers and ranchers in the San Joaquin Valley, the heart of drought-stricken California.

While touring the farm of Joe and Maria Del Bosque, who have fallowed their melon fields due to water shortages, the President emphasized the role federal support could play in alleviating drought impacts and preparing for the future.

“A changing climate means that weather-related disasters like droughts, wildfires, storms, and floods are potentially going to be costlier,” he noted, “And they’re going to be harsher.”

More and more, the President’s administration seems to be acknowledging the link between climate change and adaptation needs in agriculture.

Last month’s visit from the President followed close behind Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s announcement that the USDA will be launching seven ‘Climate Hubs’ across the country, intended to “deliver science-based knowledge and practical information to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners within each region of the United States to support decision-making related to climate change.” (See the USDA fact sheet).

It is uncertain exactly how the Climate Hubs will be funded, however, and USDA Climate Change Program Office Director Bill Hohenstein has declined to comment on the overall estimated costs of the program.

Meanwhile, the 2015 budget request for USDA comes in at $23 billion – about a billion dollars below FY2014 levels. The Climate Resilience Fund is an obvious place to provide needed financial support to the Climate Hubs, but it remains unclear as to whether the President intends for the Fund to provide that support, and also whether Congress will approve the expenditure.

Despite these uncertainties, National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson has voiced his support for Obama’s budget plan, saying, “The President’s proposed Climate Resilience Fund will provide farmers and ranchers with much-needed assistance after extreme weather events, which are occurring with increasing frequency.”

A growing acknowledgement of the link between climate change and agriculture on a federal level is heartening, to be sure, but it is worth noting that the budget plan leaves significant room for improvement with regard to sustainable ag programs more generally.

For a full overview of what the budget request means for sustainable ag interests, click here.

The California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN) brings a sustainable agricultural perspective to climate change and agriculture policy. Their efforts are aimed at increasing funding for research, technical assistance and financial incentives for farmers whose practices reduce GHG emissions, sequester carbon, and provide many environmental co-benefits.

2016-05-31T19:38:09-07:00March 19th, 2014|

Drought Could Affect Current and Future Food Prices

California Farm Bureau Federation reported today that with hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland expected to be left unplanted this year due to water shortages, market analysts and economists say shoppers will likely begin to see higher prices on some food items later this year.

Sean Villa, president of Great West Produce, a produce broker in Los Angeles County, said he expects a number of products to be affected later this year, including broccoli, sweet corn and melons from growing regions in Fresno, Mendota and Huron, where farmers will likely cut acreage due to water shortages.

Gary Tanimura, a vegetable grower based in the Salinas Valley, said he will have to reduce his summer melon production in the San Joaquin Valley by about 20 percent due to lack of water.

Tanimura said spring and fall lettuce production in the San Joaquin Valley also could drop by 25 percent to 30 percent this year.

Cindy Jewell, director of marketing for California Giant Berry Farms in Watsonville, said farms in the Oxnard growing region—which typically plant a second crop in the summer for fall production—may not be able to do that this year.

“If the water situation continues to be this severe, there may not be as many of those acres replanted for fall production,” she said, adding that if the drought continues into fall and winter, when most strawberries are planted, it could affect what’s planted for next year’s harvest.

Because California supplies nearly 90 percent of the nation’s strawberries, Jewell said it is not likely that there will be much of a production shift to other regions.

“It’s not like someone else could step in and do that,” she said. “It’s all about climate and location.”

On the beef market, the California drought may have the most impact on niche products such as grassfed, organic or natural beef, said Lance Zimmerman, a market analyst for Colorado-based Cattlefax. Those programs typically rely more on local or semi-regional supplies, he said.

Retail beef prices have risen nationwide, Zimmerman said, because of improved demand and continued declines in supply caused by several years of drought in other major beef-producing regions in the Southern Plains and the Southeast.

In states where drought conditions have improved, ranchers are now trying to build back their herds, so they’re not sending as many animals to market, particularly mature cows, and that has driven up prices on meat cuts such as chuck roast and ground beef, he added.

On the produce market, fair weather accompanying the drought has, for now, caused vegetable crops to come to market ahead of schedule, creating an overlap of products from the desert region and the San Joaquin Valley.

That, combined with reduced demand from East Coast markets due to severe winter weather, has led to temporary oversupplies of some vegetables, Tanimura said, while Jewell reported that berry production has also been stimulated by warm winter weather.

2016-05-31T19:38:09-07:00March 18th, 2014|

Drought Assistance Open House for Farmers, Ranchers and Farmworkers

As California faces one of the driest years ever recorded, the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be holding an informational session on drought resources for farmers, ranchers and farmworkers in Cloverdale.

This session will provide information on a variety of state and federal government programs designed to assist farmers with water conservation, crop insurance, and other on-farm management tools. Information on farmworker assistance programs will also be available.

While deadlines for some federal assistance programs have already passed for the 2014 crop year, there are many programs still available to those involved in agriculture.

Cloverdale event information:

March 17, 2014 – 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (Cloverdale/Sonoma County) – Cloverdale Citrus Fairgrounds 

Several state/federal government entities will be represented at this event, including: USDA Farm Service Agency; USDA Risk Management Agency; USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; USDA Rural Development; the California Employment Development Department; and other community resources.

CDFA continues to support California’s drought response. The department has developed a web page as an information clearinghouse on assistance programs for farmers, ranchers and farmworkers; will continue to work with California food banks to address drought-related impacts; and is working with the University of California to develop a real-time assessment of drought impacts in farming and ranching communities.

Additionally, CDFA continues to work as part of Governor Brown’s Drought Task Force to coordinate drought response efforts with other state agencies.

For more information concerning drought resources for California farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers, please visit – www.cdfa.ca.gov/drought

2016-05-31T19:38:50-07:00March 12th, 2014|

West Side Farmer/Rancher Says Drought is Tragedy

John Harris, owner of Harris Ranch, recently weighed in about how the drought is affecting his farming operation in Coalinga.

“This is probably the most depressing time I’ve seen in agriculture on the West Side,” he said. “We have employees that have been here for 30 or 40 years who are facing getting laid off.”No Water Logo

Harris said he and his crew have spent a lot effort to develop trees, which are doing well, that are facing the chance of being taken out.

Harris lamented, “You drive around and there’s nothing green.”

“It’s just a tragedy,” he said, “but we’re just trying to sort out how best to cope with it. We’re looking at drilling more holes and trying to buy water here and there.”

“There are just a few things we can do but nothing that is a real silver bullet,” Harris commented. “We’re probably 70% fallow right now.”

In terms of a bright side, Harris said, “If there’s anything good about it, this makes it so bad that it becomes so evident that the Endangered Species Act needs to be changed. It brings it home that you just can’t live with that.”

2016-05-31T19:38:55-07:00February 27th, 2014|
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