- (Focus Area) Agriculture
- Author: Ben A Faber
Each year the California Avocado Commission partners with Land IQ to produce a Statewide Avocado Acreage and Condition Analysis report utilizing digital satellite imagery, aerial photography and analytical tools to survey California avocado groves. This data helps the Commission make informed budgeting and marketing decisions and provides industry members with spatial data concerning crop type, location, condition and density. See the full 2023 Report HERE.
According to the report:
- In 2023 there were 52,534 planted avocado acres
- The majority of growing acreage is located in Ventura, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Riverside and San Luis Obispo Counties with a total of 50,818 planted acres
- The five top-producing counties reported 1,059 new/young acres and 3,399 topped/stumped acres
The report also provides acreage data by zip code, county, condition, year planted and density.
The California Avocado Commission's crop estimating team in conjunction with Land IQ uses the latest in remote sensing techniques to assess avocado acreage in production. As technology continues to advance refinements in our fourth generation of remote sensing techniques were applied to satellite imagery collected during spring and summer months. The imagery processing techniques include; segmentation into homogenous polygons, retention of tree crop polygons, calculation of average crop canopy moisture and vegetation indices, analysis of change maps from previous inventories, and classification of avocado groves into four categories; producing, topped/stumped, new/young, and abandoned. Aerial imagery (for a real-world view), and satellite imagery (for spectral and temporal data) are integrated into previously classified avocado acreage and analyzed for current condition of California avocado acreage statewide.
- Author: Ben A Faber
Ag Labor Management Education Program:
General Descriptions and Dates
Ag employers and their supervisory staff must remain informed of new labor laws and regulatory requirements to protect workers, their operations and their assets. The Ag Labor Management Education Program will help agricultural employers, HR managers and their field supervisors to better understand and comply with numerous requirements using a two-tier approach that includes a series of seminars and workshops as described below:
Ag Employer Seminars
Three seminars will be offered in English by labor experts including attorneys and enforcement agency representatives to provide updates and guidance on key issues impacting agricultural labor.
Topics include:
- wage and hour;
- union card-check elections;
- new worker health and safety requirements;
- paid leaves of absence;
- requirements and best practices for H2A Visa workers, and
- a range of other potential issues and liabilities.
Registration Fees per Person: Early Bird-$60; Late-$75; Walk-in*-$95
* Walk-in registration dependent on space availability.
Dates and Locations:
August 14, 2024 |
San Diego County Farm Bureau Escondido, CA |
Register |
February 19, 2025 |
Santa Maria, CA | |
March 5, 2025 |
Coalinga, CA |
Ag Labor Supervisor Workshops
Five training workshops will be offered in Spanish by highly experienced bilingual instructors to help supervisors learn about their critical roles and how to better manage and communicate with employers and workers.
Supervisors will learn to:
- implement required policies and procedures;
- to foster employee retention; and
- more effectively prevent and manage -
- work injuries,
- harassment claims,
- union interventions, and
- wage and hour issues.
Registration Fees per Person: Early Bird-$50; Late-$60; Walk-in*-$80
Note: Please register early - Space limited to first 60 registrants.
* Walk-in registration dependent on space availability.
Dates and Locations:
August 15, 2024 |
San Diego County Farm Bureau |
Register |
February 5, 2025 |
Palm Desert/Coachella, CA |
|
February 6, 2025 |
Imperial, CA |
|
February 20, 2025 |
Santa Maria, CA |
|
March 6, 2025 |
Coalinga, CA |
- Author: Sarah L Marsh
We are excited to announce the launch of a new rice podcast, "Thoughts on Rice", hosted by the UCCE Rice Advisors and found wherever you listen to podcasts.
This podcast is for growers, PCAs, consultants, and other industry professionals in the California rice industry. We'll primarily be focusing on the Sacramento Valley and Delta Region of California. We aim to deliver extension information relating to the California rice industry, but we are also looking for suggestions for topics that would be of interest to our stakeholders! Reach out to your local farm advisor for more information.
The podcast website can be found here.
The feedback poll can be found here:
- Author: Ben A Faber
Avocado Irrigation Workshop
September 3(Tuesday), 2024
1:00 – 4:00 P.M.
San Diego Farm Bureau
420 S Broadway, Escondido, CA 92025
Workshop registration link: Registration
1:00 - 4:00 p.m. |
|
1:00 |
Welcome |
1:05 |
Crop Water Use of Avocado Orchards – Ali Montazar, UCCE Irrigation and Water Management Advisor, San Diego, Imperial, and Riverside Counties |
1:35 |
The Other Uses of Water in Avocado Orchards – Ben Faber, UCCE Subtropical Crops Advisor, Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties |
2:05 |
Salinity Management in Avocado Orchards – Khaled Bali, UCCE Irrigation Water Management Specialist, Kearney Agricultural Research & Extension Center |
Break: 10 mins. |
|
2:45 |
Soil Moisture Monitoring in Avocado Groves – Gary Bender, UCCE EmeritusSubtropical Horticulture Advisor, San Diego County |
3:15 |
Development and Evaluation of Pathogen and Salinity Resistant Avocado Rootstocks – Patricia Manosalva, Director of the Avocado Rootstock Breeding Program, University of California, Riverside |
3:45 |
Mission RCD WETA and Ag Irrigation Efficiency Programs – Jameson Meyst and Mia Lorence, Mission Resource Conservation District |
4:00 |
ADJOURN |
For more information about the workshop, please contact Ali Montazar, amontazar@ucanr.edu.
Pending CEU CREDITS: CCA (2.45 hrs.)
SDRILG (2.0 hrs.)
- Author: Ben A Faber
Greening Bacterium Causes Changes in Psyllids
Recent studies, including a partnership project between Fundecitrus and the University of California, revealed that the citrus greening bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus causes physiological changes in psyllids, posing additional challenges to management strategies. An increase in the number of eggs, more frequent dispersal flights over longer distances and greater attractiveness to the host are some of the changes observed in infected psyllids.
MORE DIFFICULT TO MANAGE
“Epidemiologically speaking, the changes we have been observing in psyllid behavior turn it into a much more problematic insect,” said Fernando Amaral, Fundecitrus agricultural engineer and post-doctoral student at the São Paulo University Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture.
The psyllid behavioral changes hinder the development of pheromone tools to attract the insect and improve its monitoring.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the psyllid undergoes several changes, and this phenomenon not only poses difficulties to management, but also curbs the development of products to capture the insect,” added Fundecitrus researcher Haroldo Volpe.
Studies published between 2015 and 2024 revealed that psyllids infected with the greening bacteria can lay up to 100% more eggs than healthy insects, contributing to the growth of the psyllid population.
FREQUENT FLIERS
The studies also concluded that infected psyllids are more agitated when compared to healthy insects. In order to reach this conclusion, researchers placed adult insects from both groups on a platform. The teams noticed that infected insects flew, on average, after 50 seconds from the beginning of the observation period. The healthy subjects took around 150 seconds.
“Knowing that the insect flies more often and starts flying earlier demonstrates agitation and altered behavior, increasing its ability to spread greening,” said Volpe.
Yet another conclusion of the studies is that infected psyllids perform more frequent dispersal flights.
“Psyllids infected with the greening bacteria have a 45% higher rate of long flights when compared to healthy insects,” said Amaral.
In other words, the infected psyllid will fly longer distances and further spread the disease. Moreover, infected psyllids will also have a greater need to feed (forage) on more shoots and consequently will further disseminate the disease.
SUSCEPTIBILITY TO INSECTICIDES
On the other hand, the susceptibility of infected insects to insecticides is greater than that of healthy insects. Psyllids infected with the greening bacteria require a 20% to 313% lower concentration of insecticides to achieve the same mortality rate as healthy insects. This happens because the bacteria interferes with the psyllid metabolization of these products, which hinders their detoxication process.
CONTINUE COMBATING DISEASE
Fundecitrus General Manager Juliano Ayres emphasized the need for citrus growers to remain aware of the measures used to combat the disease in the field.
“The more diseased plants in groves without appropriate psyllid control, the more contaminated insects there will be and, consequently, the faster the disease will spread,” Ayres said. “Therefore, it is essential to continue to eliminate diseased plants from groves and keep up strict control of the insect on these plants.”
Source: Citricultor, Fundecitrus
CLas-Positive Psyllid Sample in Riverside County
July 26, 2024
An adult Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) sample from a residential property in the San Jacinto Valley area of Riverside County, California, has tested positive for Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), the bacterium that causes huanglongbing (HLB).
The positive sample was collected as part of the Multi-Pest Risk Survey on a residential property in Hemet. It was confirmed positive for CLas on July 17 by the Citrus Research Board's Jerry Dimitman Laboratory. Nymphs were also collected from the property and tested negative for CLas. This is the first confirmed CLas-positive adult ACP found in the San Jacinto Valley area.
An HLB quarantine zone will not be established as a result of this CLas-positive ACP detection. However, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) staff is conducting surveys and collecting samples from the property and all HLB host plants that are located within a 250-meter radius around the find, per the ACP/HLB Action Plan.
It is crucial that ACP populations continue to be controlled properly in order to stop HLB from spreading, advised California's Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention Program.
While CDFA is not requiring mandatory treatment for area commercial growers, those who wish to take proactive steps to protect their groves or who have additional questions can contact Riverside County Grower Liaison Sandra Zwaal.
In September 2023, a CLas-positive ACP sample was collected from a residential property in California's Ventura County. That sample came from a residential citrus tree in the southwest area of Santa Paula. An HLB quarantine zone was not established as a result of that detection, either. While that first confirmation of a CLas-positive ACP in Ventura County was concerning, HLB was not detected in any Ventura County citrus trees. Learn more here.
Source: Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention Program