Agricultural clientele utilize Extension information to inform irrigation management decisions, potentially improving water use efficiency and protecting California's water resources.

The Issue

For farmers to grow high-yielding and good quality crops and be good stewards of our finite water resources, they need to know how much water is used by their crop and how much to refill the soil with irrigation. Weather conditions and the crop's life stage determine the water use, also known as crop evapotranspiration (ET). When farmers have accurate crop ET information available, they can more closely apply the appropriate amount of water at the right time and grow more and better quality food...

Eighty-six percent of private forest landowners indicate they are highly motivated to develop a forest management plan after attending a Forest Stewardship workshop, which puts them on the path towards improved management of forest lands, participation in cost-share funding programs, and protecting California's natural resources.

The Issue

Protecting California's forests starts with a plan. There are 87,000 private forest landowners in California who collectively own nine million acres. For private forest landowners, identifying desired goals and objectives is not always easy especially when there are seemingly conflicting goals. Forest stewardship is based on conservation principles...

UC Cooperative Extension Advisor Surendra Dara organized a conference on biologicals that drew growers from California, other states, and outside the U.S. 95.7% of those surveyed plan to use information learned on nearly 70,000 acres which they farm, manage, and influence.

The Issue

The term biologicals in agriculture refers to biocontrol agents such as parasitic wasps and predatory arthropods, microbial and botanical pesticides, biostimulants and other bio-based inputs used for pest management or improving crop health and productivity. The potential of...