- Author: Chris M. Webb
The Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office is coordinating a pesticide container recycling day. This event will be held April 12, 2012 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at Fruit Growers Supply in Santa Paula.
There is no cost for commercial growers, landscape professionals, and pest control advisors to participate; however, they must be registered and/or permitted with the Ventura County Agriculture Commissioners office.
Containers must conform to program requirements. Container requirement details can be found here.
To set up an appointment or to inquire about the program, please contact Inspector Blanca Enriquez-Pratt at (805)388-4222, extension 7147.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
The newly redesigned UC IPM Online website has many wonderful resources intended to reduce the environmental and human health impacts of pest problems and managing them. Integrated pest management (IPM) can be used to solve pest problems in urban, agricultural, and wildland or natural areas.
IPM embraces combined management approaches for the greatest effectiveness for reducing pest damage. Biological control, cultural controls, mechanical and physical controls, and chemical control work together to create effective, long-term control in a way that minimizes possible harm to people and the environment.
When chemical control is needed the Mitigating Pesticide Hazards webpage provides step by step guidelines and suggestions to reduce potential harm.
Topics include:
- Choose a pesticide from the UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines for the target pest
- Before an application evaluation
- After an application evaluation
- Consider water management practices that reduce pesticide movement off-site.
- Consider practices that reduce air quality problems.
Some of these resources are available in Spanish.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
California state regulations and the Federal Worker Protection Standard require fieldworkers and pesticide handlers to receive pesticide safety training according to specific criteria. The trainings must be given in a language that the worker understands and must be done by certified trainers.
Several opportunities exist to become certified to conduct these pesticide safety trainings, or to get a refresher if you are already a certified trainer. These trainings are approved by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR). Participants will receive an instructor’s manual.
All trainings will be conducted by Lisa Blecker, Pesticide Safety Education Coordinator at the University of California Statewide IPM Program. The program is designed for: safety managers, farm labor contractors, ag supervisors, certified trainers seeking a refresher course, and other safety trainers.
Trainings last from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Dates and locations of the trainings are:
- January 27 – Ventura (Spanish)
- January 31 – Napa (Spanish)
- February 2 – Modesto (English)
- February 7 – Ventura (Spanish)
- February 9 – Bakersfield (Spanish)
There is a $100.00 cost to attend. Materials, continental breakfast and lunch are included.
For more information call 530-752-3912 or email lblecker@ucdavis.edu. To register online, visit www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/events.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Written for pest management professionals and pesticide applicators the UC IPM Green Bulletin shares resources and research to benefit these groups. As is often the case with UC resources, while they might be designed for specific groups, others may also benefit and gain knowledge.
The new edition of the Green Bulletin contains the following articles:
- Natural Herbicides: Are They Effective?
- NPIC: A Good Source of Pesticide Information for Your Customers
- Alternative Turf Demonstration Project
- UC IPM Offers new Free Online Courses
- Ask the Expert!
Current and back issues of the Green Bulletin can be found on this page of UC’s Integrated Pest Management site.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Agricultural innovation and technological advances have been harvested from UC Davis over the last century. As advances are achieved, our growing global population applies pressure for researchers to achieve more. California is a top world-wide producer of agricultural products, and California researchers work hard to find new and better ways to produce food.
The UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES) does much to contribute towards this effort. The recent CA&ES Outlook: Feeding a Hungry Planet highlights current research and innovations to provide agricultural producers knowledge and technology needed to make better, faster, and economically sound decisions. This work is focused towards agriculture, conservation, and economics. The articles are interesting and provide much food for thought.
For instance:
- Everyone needs to eat, and our global population is growing quickly. Economists have documented substantial long-term benefits of agricultural research.
- To continue feeding a growing population we have two options: increase yields on land already in production, or expand agriculture onto new land.
- UC researchers are developing “precision agriculture”, which used global positioning systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), wireless networks, and innovative sensor technology to deliver precise amounts of water, fertilizer and pesticides for individual plants or small blocks of plants. This individualized management will save growers money and lesson the potential environmental load possible from excess fertilizer and pesticide use.
- Using GPS, a mechanical weeder has been developed. This will save growers money and reduce the need for herbicide use. On-campus testing has been successful and the weeder will be tested in a commercial field next year
- Increasing biodiversity on and near the farm provides many benefits towards increased food production while increasing the sustainability of farming systems.
Learn more about these topics and many others in the Fall/Winter edition of CA&ES Outlook. To find out more about UCD’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, or to view previous publications please visit their website.