- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Farmers gathered at the UC Kearney Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Parlier yesterday to discuss potential action by the EPA on the insecticide chlorpyifos, reported Ezra David Romero on Valley Public Radio. The meeting was hosted by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) Statewide Integrated Pest Management project (UC IPM).
Chlorpyrifos is widely applied to many crops for pest control; the highest percentage on almonds, citrus, alfalfa and cotton. However, the
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
When the National Weather Service announced that December 2015 temperatures were as chilly as "normal," farmers cheered. Many fruit and nut trees require cool weather to reset their biological clocks and ensure a healthy crop, reported Robert Rodriguez in the Fresno Bee.
Chill requirements vary by crop and variety. Some cherries, apricots, peaches and pistachios requiring a significant accumulation of cold weather to rest and then start growing again when the temperatures warm. For example, without a cold winter, pistachio trees get confused at the beginning of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
As the California drought wears on, media have reached out this week to UC Agriculture and Natural Resources advisors about consequences in agricultural cropland, urban landscapes and fire-prone wildland.
Agricultural cropland
NPR's Valley Public Radio ran a story about salt buildup in almond orchards. Without rainfall to move salts below almond trees' rootzone, harmful levels of salinity are building up in the soil. “We've been seeing this increasing problem over the past couple years, due to the lack of winter rain, of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
People around the world are eating 1,000 percent more California almonds than they did just a decade ago, and last year almonds became the top export crop in the nation's top agriculture state, reported Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press. China's booming middle class is driving much of the demand.
The issue of increasing almond production is raised because of its water use. According to the story, almond orchards consume more water than the indoor use of all 39 million California residents combined.
The AP article was picked up by the Fresno Bee, the
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The extreme water conservation measures mandated by Gov. Jerry Brown has pundits casting a critical eye on the California almond industry, reported Daniel Dale in TheStar.com, a Canadian news website.
It takes nearly four litres of water to produce each solitary almond, the article said (about one gallon). The almond's small size, high retail price and easy-to-understand water needs create a a handy example of purported ag water gluttony for people being asked to conserve.
Almonds have become California's second-most lucrative crop and No. 1 agricultural export, but doesn't deserve "as much of a target as...
