Task 6: Education, Outreach, and Extension
Education, outreach, and the extension of information are the basis for California almond growers to gain confidence in reduced risk practices. Conducting field meetings, workshops, and providing information via newsletters, status reports, and articles play an important role. In addition, the Almond PMA is drafting monitoring guidelines for PTB, NOW, SJS, mites, ants, and dormant sampling. These protocols are a work in progress; however other groups and individuals have already expressed an interest in using them.
Attendance at field day meetings reflects the optimism and success the PMA program. Each region organizes at least two meetings per year. One meeting is conducted in the spring and the other is a dormant/winter meeting. Meetings and seminars with a focus on dormant season information are an important part in the extension of information demonstrating techniques helpful in reducing pesticide inputs. The winter meetings coincide with the time of the season where many insecticidal sprays are being applied and therefore are especially relevant for growers and PCA’s to help determine whether an orchard requires any dormant treatment. At the beginning of the 2003 season, Butte County held a meeting on January 9, and Stanislaus County had one on January 29. Both of these meetings highlight ongoing research towards almond production using reduced risk practices, and include information specific to each region’s pest pressures. The most recent dormant meetings have been at the end of the 2003 crop year. These have had an emphasis on proposed regulation changes regarding irrigation discharges and dormant season applications. Kern County’s meeting was on November 25, 2003, and Butte County’s on December 11.
The PMA sites also hold field meetings during the summer months with pest management demonstrations and hands-on displays. These meetings are very valuable and are usually very well attended because they show first hand the successes of the reduced risk treatments and the grower is available to talk about his experiences in the project. Less toxic alternatives to traditional in-season insecticides are explained as well as insect identification and using weather data to time sprays and forecast insect population peaks. The spring Field Days were held in Kern on May 1, in Stanislaus on May 15, and in Butte County on May 20, 2003. Topics included increased diseases seen in 2003, almond replant disease, rootstock evaluation, deficit irrigation, degree day projections, insect monitoring, nutrition and tissue sampling, and updates on laws and regulations from the Agricultural Commissioners office. In addition, the almond PMA was highlighted in a presentation by Carolyn Pickel at the Nickels Field Day in Arbuckle on May 8, 2003.
Newsletters are an important component for relaying updates and informing growers, some who may not be active in the PMA, on issues regarding almonds in California. Many of these newsletters are regional, thereby relaying pertinent information to local growers. Some newsletters are sent via mail, others are status reports or quarterly reports reported to the Department of Pesticide Regulation that can be accessed via the Almond PMA website at http://lookercomm.com/almondPMA/almondpma.htm. News articles and news coverage relating to the Almond Pest Management Alliance benefit the program by reaching a large audience in popular agricultural periodicals. The winter 2002-2003 Almond PMA Newsletter was sent to 6,500 growers, PCA’s and other interested parties. It contained updates on the regional projects and detailed information on shredding and chipping almond prunings to help air quality. The Fall-Winter 2003 issue of the newsletter focused on the unusually high level of damage to the crop at the Butte site, and also detailed new grant funds that will keep the project going a while longer. The newsletters are also posted to the Almond PMA website.
Many growers and those involved with the almond industry subscribe to or have access to agricultural periodicals. The Almond PMA makes good use of this medium for educating and updating many of those growers who do not actively participate in the Almond PMA. Through this extensive outreach effort, we hope to gain interest in the program, thereby increasing the numbers of growers voluntarily adopting reduced risk techniques in some capacity.
Articles in Ag Alert, the California Farm Bureau’s newsletter, on April 10 and May 14, 2003 provide detailed information about San Jose scale and Tenlined June beetle problems in Stanislaus County and statewide. The Modesto Bee, October 14, carried a story about the success of almond growers working to reduce the use of pesticides, highlighting the PMA’s emphasis on proactive use of more environmentally sensitive pest management. Also in October, the EPA announced new funding awarded to the almond industry to reduce pesticides, with praise to the industry and the PMA for the decreased pesticide use since 1997.