- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Even as farmers across California struggle with the third year of drought, so do University of California agriculture researchers, reported Todd Fitchette in Western Farm Press.
Fitchette opened his story with the plight of ag research at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center near Five Points. Many of the farmers in the area will receive no surface water allocation this year; neither will the research center.
The facility can pull water from a deep well, but it is not enough nor is the water quality adequate for all the farming operations, said Bob Hutmacher, UC...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
In light of severely reduced surface water deliveries this year due to the California drought, more San Joaquin Valley farmers are digging new wells or deepening current wells to tap more groundwater, reported Lisa M. Krieger in the San Jose Mercury News.
But mining water that has been underground for thousands of years has many deeply worried.
"It's our savings account, and we're draining it," said Phil Isenberg of the Public Policy Institute of California, a former Sacramento mayor and assemblyman. "At some point, there will be none...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Due to the lingering drought, farms in the San Joaquin Valley are being found with an unwelcome white dusting of "snow" on the soil surface. It isn't the snow so desperately needed in California's high country; rather it is salt and other toxins that have precipitated out of the soil because of sparse winter rains, reported Dennis Pollock in Western Farm Press.
At the recent California Plant and Soil Conference in Fresno, multiple speakers showed pictures of what they labeled "California snow," the article said.
Plant toxins like selenium, boron and salt leach out with water, but water is in short supply this year. "That's why a lot...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Hershey Co. needs them for their Almond Joy candy bars, German confectioners depend on them for their traditional Christmas marzipan, French chefs use them for flavor and crunch in pastries. They are California almonds, which represent 81 percent of the world supply and are taking a blow due to a three-year California drought, according to an article in Bloomberg Businessweek.
The story opened with a typical scenario: a California farmer spending $1.1 million to drill two new wells for a 1,200-acre almond orchard. The farmer's state water allotment was cut to zero. "I'm right on the edge of my water needs," he...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Research through university campuses, UC Cooperative Extension, and USDA Agricultural Research Service not only improves productivity and makes California growers more competitive in the international market, it also helps producers use resources more efficiently and minimize environmental and other societal impacts, wrote Bob Curtis and Gabriele Ludwig of the Almond Board of California in an op-ed published by Western Farm Press.
The article noted that grants have been helpful in recent years to conduct research, but they do not address the loss of "research capacity," a phrase the authors use to describe cuts to...
