Posts Tagged: organic agriculture
Organic Agriculture Seminar Series for GrowersJanuary 24 – March 21, 2023 Tuesdays, 12 – 1 pm, via Zoom
Please join us for a weekly lunchtime seminar series. Each week we'll be joined by a guest speaker for a 30-minute presentation followed by questions from the listeners and more general discussion.
The Zoom link will be the same each week. No pre-registration required.
Meeting link:https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/95260378391?pwd=TXNTNmtNalo5TzY0bjdISEszeXRXUT09
*The presentation (not the Q and A discussion) will be recorded and made available.
Habrá traducción al Español
Date |
Topic |
Tuesday, January 24 |
Nitrogen Mineralization from Organic Fertilizers and Composts Joji Muramoto, Organic Production Specialist, UC Santa Cruz |
Tuesday, January 31 |
Tools and Approaches for Assessing and Improving Irrigation Efficiency on the Farm Michael Cahn, Irrigation and Water Resource Farm Advisor, UCCE |
Tuesday, February 7 |
Organic Management of Nematodes Philip Waisen, Vegetable Crops Advisor, UCCE |
Tuesday, February 14 |
How to Identify and Scout for Insect Pests Alejandro del Poso, Assistant Professor of Entomology, Applied Insect Ecology - Turfgrass and Ornamentals, Virginia Tech University |
Tuesday, February 21 |
Why, How and When to Choose Between Open-pollinated, Hybrid, and Land-race seeds? Charlie Brummer, Director and Professor, Center for Plant Breeding, UC Davis |
Tuesday, February 28 |
Management of Soilborne Plant Pathogens with Organic Amendments Amisha Poret-Peterson, USDA-ARS, Davis |
Tuesday, March 7 |
Biology and Management of Thrips and the Diseases They Spread Daniel Hasegawa, USDA-ARS, Salinas |
Tuesday, March 14 |
Weed Management on Small farms and in Organic Production Systems Darryl Wong, Executive Director, Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, UC Santa Cruz |
Tuesday, March 21 |
Recruiting Owls and Raptors for Pest Management Breanna Martinico, Human-Wildlife Interactions Farm Advisor, UCCE |
Questions? Contact Margaret Lloyd mglloyd@ucanr.edu, Aparna Gazula agazula@ucanr.edu or Lucy Diekmann lodiekmann@ucanr.edu
Organic farmers to get technical assistance from CDFA and UC ANR
The California Department of Food and Agriculture is awarding $1.85 million to the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources to increase technical assistance for California's organic farmers.
CDFA's State Organic Program is executing $850,000 in contracts with UC ANR to run through September 2024, while CDFA's Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation is awarding a $1 million grant to run from July 2022 to June 2025.
“California farmers provide 36% of all organic production in the United States,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “This funding expands technical assistance to growers transitioning to certified organic agriculture and supports our strong California community of organic farmers and consumers by conducting field trials and demonstration projects with farmers to improve organic practices.”
California organically farms just over 2 million acres, which is about 8% of the total agricultural acreage in the state, and will likely continue to expand over time as long as consumer demand continues to rise, according to Houston Wilson, director of UC ANR's Organic Agriculture Institute.
“Demand for organic agriculture has consistently grown every year for the past two decades,” Wilson said. “Organic currently accounts for 5.8% of domestic food sales.”
“We are excited to see CDFA increasing support for organic agriculture as part of a broader climate-smart agriculture strategy,” said Wilson. “As demand for organic continues to rise, California growers need increasingly targeted technical assistance in all areas of organic production and marketing.”
The CDFA funds will allow UC ANR to hire two academic coordinators, which are currently being recruited.
“The academic coordinators will work directly with growers, as well as develop research and extension projects that will involve existing UC Cooperative Extension personnel,” Wilson said. “One of the coordinators will specifically focus on connecting our efforts with small-scale and historically underserved growers through our partnership with the UC Small Farms Program.”
The organic practices can be used by conventional farms as well as organic farms.
“Just as organic farmers benefit from UC ANR's pest management, irrigation and crop production research, the new knowledge developed on organic practices by the UC Organic Agriculture Institute will be useful for all California farmers,” said Glenda Humiston, UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources.
Some of the key UC ANR project objectives include:
- Conduct research on soil health management, carbon sequestration and crop rotations in organic systems
- Create new extension and training opportunities for organic growers across California
- Provide technical assistance to both certified and transitioning organic growers
- Review and summarize organic acreage and practices in California
- Develop economic analysis of organic production and markets
“Clif Bar is proud to have supported the creation of the UC Organic Agriculture Institute and congratulates them on this new and important funding,” said Philippa Lockwood, Clif Bar social responsibility program manager. “Supporting the advancement of organic agriculture in our home state of California and the great work that's to come from the UCOAI is a true honor and we look forward to their impactful agricultural innovations ahead.”
The 2022-2023 state budget signed last week by Gov. Gavin Newsom includes $5 million in funds for CDFA to assist farmers with transitioning to organic operations, and the USDA recently announced an investment of up to $300 million for the same purpose.
Updated July 18, 2022, to add Philippa Lockwood quote.
New California Organic Research Agenda available online
Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) has published the new California Organic Research Agenda (CORA), a comprehensive report that examines current needs and challenges of organic farmers and ranchers across California and provides policy and research recommendations to address producer-identified issues.
The CORA report is a companion to OFRF's 2022 National Organic Research Agenda. The national organic survey data boasts responses from over 1,100 producers and 16 listening sessions held across the U.S. Using the California subset of the national survey data, the CORA report highlights the top production and non-production challenges cited by California's organic farmers and ranchers.
“Organic farming has been historically under-invested in, in terms of research, education and extension,” says OFRF Executive Director Brise Tencer. “Both the new California Organic Research Agenda and the 2022 National Organic Research Agenda present incredible feedback directly from organic farmers and provide a compelling roadmap for how to best support the growth of this important sector of agriculture.”
Report findings indicate that managing production costs is a substantial challenge for 71% of producers surveyed, and accessing labor proved to be the leading non-production challenge. An overwhelming number of state producers (76%) expressed substantial need for technical assistance with the organic management of weeds, pests, and disease. In addition to detailing farmer challenges on and off the field, OFRF's CORA report provides a comparison analysis of farmer responses based on commodity and farming experience. National and state comparisons are also included in the report.
Production of the CORA report was supported in part by the University of California Organic Agriculture Institute, a new statewide program within the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, as well as the UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology.
“One of our primary activities is to generate new research and extension programs focused on organic agriculture,” says Houston Wilson, director of the UC Organic Agriculture Institute. “The CORA report provides an excellent roadmap to guide and prioritize our efforts, we're really excited to turn this information into action.”
According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, state farmers and ranchers were responsible for 40% of all organic agricultural product sales in the country. Data from a 2019 USDA organic survey concludes California has 965,257 acres in organic production, which is approximately 17.5% of all organic acreage in the country. OFRF's California Organic Research Agenda examines grower needs in the nation's top-producing state of organic agricultural commodities and specialty crops, paving the way for future research and investment.
"This report will benefit organic growers in California by playing a role as a critical reference to increase public support and develop research projects targeting specific needs that diverse organic growers in the state are facing," says Joji Muramoto, UC Cooperative Extension organic production specialist based at UC Santa Cruz.
The CORA report is available free online at https://ofrf.org/research/nora for farmers, policymakers, agricultural suppliers, seed companies and the general public.
CIG Project Organic Reduced Disturbance Farmers Phil Foster and Tom Willey Plan 2022 Air Injection Project in Peppers with John Petrosso of Mazzei Injector Company
January 19, 2022
On a foggy morning at the Santa Ana Ranch of Phil Foster's Pinnacle Organically Grown Produce farm nearHollister, CA, he along with fellowCIG Project farmer, Tom Willey, met with JohnPetrosso, the Sales Engineer forMazzei Injector Company to plan a study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness ofMazzei's air injection equipment as a possible means for increasing oxygen availability for soilmicrorganisms and thereby get higher vegetable crop yields. The air injection technique has had positive results in a variety of earlier studies with vegetables, but has not taken off as a mainstream practice of vegetable farmers to date. Foster and Willey are particularly keen to see if air injection might overcome some of the yield declines that they've been seeing in recent years as Phil's farm has tried to rely on less and less soil disturbance with tillage implements. The project has been in the planning stages for several months and is now shaping up in terms of more detailed field implementation. The study crop in 2022 at Foster's farm will be peppers. Three articles describing previous work on the air injection technique as well as a short video with Petrosso's predictions for what will be seen in the 2022 pepper crop are available below and at th You Tube link
2001 Using Air in SDI to Increase Yields in Bell Peppers International Irrigation Show
2001-Vegetables West Adding Air Adds Yield
2005-02-17 Two-phase Flow of Water & Air During Aerated Subsurface Drip Irrigation SU & MIDMORE JOH
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CIG Project Organic Reduced Disturbance Farmers Phil Foster and Tom Willey Plan 2022 Air Injection Project in Peppers with John Petrosso of Mazzei Injector Company
January 19, 2022
On a foggy morning at the Santa Ana Ranch CIG Project farmer, Tom Willey, met with John Petrosso, the Sales Engineer for Mazzei Injector Company to plan a study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of Mazzei's air injection equipment as a possible means for increasing oxygen availability for soil microrganisms and thereby get higher vegetable crop yields. The air injection technique has had positive results in a variety of earlier studies with vegetables, but has not taken off as a mainstream practice of vegetable farmers to date. Foster and Willey are particularly keen to see if air injection might overcome some of the yield declines that they've been seeing in recent years as Phil's farm has tried to rely on less and less soil disturbance with tillage implements. The project has been in the planning stages for several months and is now shaping up in terms of more detailed field implementation. The study crop in 2022 at Foster's farm will be peppers. Three articles describing previous work on the air injection technique as well as a short video withPetrosso's prediction for what will be seen in 2022 are available below. The 56-second video is also available at
2022 Air Injection Project at Phil Foster's Farm in Hollister, CA
2001 Using Air in SDI to Increase Yields in Bell Peppers International Irrigation Show
2001-Vegetables West Adding Air Adds Yield
2005-02-17 Two-phase Flow of Water & Air During Aerated Subsurface Drip Irrigation SU & MIDMORE JOH