- Author: Wendy Powers
What a week – and it is only Tuesday! I didn't make it to the beach this past weekend and I have no immediate plans to dine in downtown Atlanta anytime soon, but I have remained busy nonetheless. Today is my ‘light' day yet it has gone by quite quickly. At present, I am listening to President Napolitano's Virtual Town Hall. Like other locations, there is discussion about resuming at-work operations and the budget impacts of COVID-19. Suffice it to say there are more questions than answers on both fronts. Similarly, there are many, many conversations going on about reopening our UC ANR offices, reopening the campuses and the uncertainties and risk/benefits of so doing.
Amidst all of the uncertainty, there continues to be so much good news! Yesterday Glenda and I met with Katherine Webb-Martinez to talk a bit about the Federal report that is under development. I shared last week that I had reviewed the report and was humbled by the impacts our program personnel shared. I offered a couple of glimpses of example impacts. The full report will be available in the next month or so; I will share a link as soon as it is posted. In the meantime, here are a couple more impacts that we are sharing this year:
- Effective insecticides for armyworm control were used in more than 40,000 acres of rice in 2019, resulting in armyworm control, avoiding yield losses that can be as high as 20%, and resulting in economic benefits for participating growers. The availability of these insecticides could replace broad spectrum insecticides that are not effective, resulting in environmental benefits and cost savings for growers. (Luis Espino)
- CropManage is now used in 7% of the lettuce acreage in the Salinas Valley, and has resulted in an average of a 30% reduction in nitrogen fertilizer applied to these crops. (Michael Cahn)
- Recommendations from the UC ANR "Managing Drought in a Changing Climate", report have been incorporated in the Governor's 2020 Water Resilience Portfolio. (Ted Grantham)
Thanks to those who reviewed Project Board data to identify the AES projects with significant research accomplishments to highlight, as well as other program highlights they deemed worthy.
- SFS – Neil McRoberts, with assistance from Deanne Meyer
- SNE – David Lile
- EIPD – Jim Farrar and Georgios Vidalakis
- HFC – Martin Smith, Karina Diaz Rios, with coordination by Clare Gupta
- Water – Doug Parker
In addition, Katherine, Jennifer, and Kit spent many hours pulling it all together, checking facts, and creating the story. I can't wait for all of you to have a chance to review the report.
Tomorrow is Advocacy Day. The initial plan was to hold meetings at the State Capitol in person on April 1. The new plan is to conduct meetings with our state Senators, Assemblypersons, and their staff by Zoom. I enjoyed the meetings we held in Sacramento last year. I am even more excited about the meetings this year because we can more readily connect our local UC ANR people with the appropriate representatives. As a result, I am able to be in meetings with Keith, Yana, Janet, Claudia, Katherine, and Anne in addition to some of the program staff from San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. We have great stories to share with the elected officials. Fifteen offices, in total, are scheduled for visits throughout the day! I will report back later in the week how this new approach worked.
- Author: Wendy Powers
Happy Monday! It doesn't feel like Monday. Saturday ‘felt' like Sunday and I woke up early this morning thinking how slow the weekend was going by. I don't recall having that concern before. Then I realized it was over – problem solved. Yardwork was front and center over the weekend. I was reminded that it's best not to assume you can have it all. While the geraniums and azaleas look fantastic, with little to no effort, just around the corner a Japanese maple is dead with no clear cause. We lost one last year, too. That leaves us with one. I won't plan on it hanging around past this year. During the Town Hall last week, Anne Iaccopucci mentioned having a great view of her Japanese maple from her home work space. Hopefully, she has a green thumb and will have the Japanese maple for a long time.
Who knows how much longer Anne's home work space will serve as her daily venue. Now that we are hearing about plans to reopen, it's only a matter of time before what was normal is so once again. I read a document from a school district that is making plans. Their conversations include requiring the use of face masks all day for students and teachers. That's in addition to fewer persons in a class room. The UC campuses are putting thought into resuming operations. The Vice Chancellors for Research are sharing ideas amongst the group, specifically related to reopening of campus lab spaces. While UC ANR operations are much different from a campus, we'll want to consider how and what practices are applied across the state. A group has convened to work through logistics, benchmarks, and metrics.
I had the opportunity to read through a draft of our federal report that the Program Planning and Evaluation (PPE) team has been working hard to develop, with input from several academics. This year, the Agriculture Experiment Station work has been integrated with the Extension work. The result is a nice illustration of the continuum of research to policy and adoption. The PPE team shaped the report around our condition changes. What really stood out for me were the impact statements that had been shared in Project Board and pulled out by PPE to feature in the report. Although long, I hope everyone has a chance to read the full report at some point. Here are a couple of statements that stood out to me.
- CalFresh Healthy Living UC participants in San Joaquin County were evaluated using a retrospective pre-survey with Making Every Dollar Count participants reporting improvement (80% of 129) in the food resource management skills emphasized in the lessons, e.g., easy ways to save money on food, using resources to make money go further, knowing more about simple, healthy meals to make at home.
- A field assessment of the vineyard grower's practices conducted in 2018 and 2019 showed that currently 100% of the growers in the Coachella Valley remove stumps before replanting and 75% spray a fungicide after pruning. These practices help extend the productive life of the vineyards.
I will share more statements in follow up posts. There are so many examples of the difference our work makes! While many are anxious to get out with our clientele and continue our work, the work continues to make a difference even while we are stuck at home. It's different, it's not ideal, but for many that depend on us, it is appreciated that we are reaching out in different ways. I see Dan Macon is holding a virtual coffee shop with his rancher clients. I'm excited to hear how that works out. In the meantime, I hope your week is off to a great start!
- Author: Wendy Powers
I spent a fair bit of time this weekend reading the draft report to our Federal partners (USDA). It is a big undertaking to craft the 78 pages of activities and impacts, beginning with each of you entering data into Project Board. Strategic Initiative leaders or other leaders within the division comb through the data to pull out key impact stories. Each of those individuals or 2-person teams submits their information to the Program Planning and Evaluation team, and from there it is formatted and compiled before editing to read from a single voice. This year we were able to organize the report around condition changes that will resonate with our partners. Below are a few examples :
Condition Change: UC ANR contributed to increased agricultural efficiency and profitability.
- After presenting the sorghum trial results, 92% of 60 growers and industry consultants expressed a willingness to plant the low seeding rates that performed best in trials. Before the workshop, most growers were planting higher seeding rates because of industry recommendations. This increased efficiency should result in good yields with lower seed inputs, and thus improved profitability. (Note: this is a behavior change where follow up can confirm that the change in profitability occurred.
Condition Change: UC ANR contributed to improved animal management, productivity, and efficiency.
- In 2017, 780 dairies acquired the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program's environmental stewardship certification qualifying for a 50% fee reduction in water quality fees. The actual value to producers exceeds $2,250,000 annually.
Condition Change: UC ANR contributed to improved food security.
- Over 1,200 UC CalFresh participants responded to a survey about their experiences with the Plan, Shop, Save and Cook curriculum, designed to help adult participants stretch food dollars by learning shopping strategies and meal planning. Participants reported improved food security by running out of food less often (36%). Also, 4,000 EFNEP adult graduates reported an average monthly food cost savings of $38.20, which collectively saved California EFNEP families $2,916,340.The survey results support national data that, according to the USDA Economic Research Service, the estimated percentage of food-insecure households in 2013-2015 was 12.6%, which decreased by 3% from 2010-2012 estimates.
Condition Change: UC ANR contributed to increased ecological sustainability of agriculture, landscapes, and forestry.
- Concerning Asian citrus psyllid, more than 10 million natural parasitoid enemies have been mass reared and released in California in cooperation with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Establishment has been confirmed at 95% of release sites, parasitoids have spread up to eight miles without human assistance, and pest populations have declined on average by about 70%.
Condition Change: UC ANR contributed to the increased ecological sustainability of agriculture, landscapes, and forests.
- Extension about oak restoration has led to planning and contracting several projects covering 300 acres. As of 2018, 212 acres of oak woodland have been successfully restored. Additionally, with support from UC ANR, the Natural Resources Conservation Service now has a legal permitting pathway for their oak restoration programs.
Condition Change: UC ANR contributed to improved water use efficiency.
- Garden Walks program participants saved over 9000 gallons a year on average when compared to control groups. Total water savings for all participants over the lifetime of the program are over 27 million gallons to date, and the program has cost less to run over that same time-frame than it would cost to directly buy 27 million gallons at the average rate paid by the Metropolitan Municipal Water District residential customers.
These are just a few of the many, many examples provided that are sure to impress our Federal partners as they have me.
If you happen to be following the ERS/USDA move updates, you will know that California is no longer under consideration despite, in my opinion, meeting the criteria as well as many options in the 27 states that remain under consideration. That's only eight states fewer than the original list; perhaps a strategic move on the part of the Secretary. Pretty much the whole state of Virginia remains under consideration, which makes far more sense to me than Tallahassee (the only area of Florida still under review). And, does anyone even know where Hanover Township, PA is, much less why a private citizen would submit a bid that remains under consideration? Perhaps the answers will be revealed soon.
Over the weekend I received the photo from Mark Bell. Care to take a guess where he is? That answer to follow.
If you happen to be keeping track, I have 61 dossiers remaining.