Executive Summary

The Almond Pest Management Alliance (PMA) was initiated by the Almond Board of California in 1998 to evaluate the possibility of managing economic pests by implementing reduced risk pesticides.  Working closely with the Almond Hullers and Processors Association, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, the University of California Statewide IPM Project, and University of California Cooperative Extension, the Almond Board formed an alliance to study reduced risk practices in California almonds.  This collaborative approach grew out of two major concerns.  Those two concerns are: 1) the implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) with possible loss of some traditional crop protection tools, and 2) growing public concern over water quality standards in the San Joaquin River and Sacramento River watersheds, with possible links to runoff of dormant sprays of pesticides used by almond growers.

Because of the enormous scope of the California almond industry, which encompasses 595,000 acres, ranging from Bakersfield to Chico, and the wide range of pests and regional variables, the PMA set up three regional projects and continues to study those sites.  These projects are located in the Northern Sacramento Valley (Butte County), the Central San Joaquin Valley (Stanislaus County) and the Southern San Joaquin Valley (Kern County).  Each project consists of an orchard that is divided into a conventional practice treatment and a reduced risk treatment.  There are variations to the treatment blocks with various degrees of reduced risk practices.  Each project is directed by the local UCCE farm advisor who establishes the plot that best addresses local pest concerns and growing conditions that would be relevant to the local growers of the region.  The advisors employ a field scout who performs the extensive monitoring required.

The target pests addressed across all three projects continue to be navel orangeworm (NOW), peach twig borer (PTB), San Jose scale (SJS), mites, and ants.  Diseases, cover crops, and fertilizer applications are studied on a regional basis.  Smaller satellite projects complement the PMA orchard demonstration sites by providing research about regional issues. 

Other aspects of the Almond PMA are to continue to work closely with the Advisory Team, share the results of pest monitoring with area PCA’s, growers, and Farm Advisors, research pesticide use reports, continue to outreach, educate and extend the most current information through meetings and mailings, and lastly to evaluate the project.   

Extending information and outreach is critical regarding use and acceptance of reduced risk practices.  The University of California involvement is important to ensure scientific credibility of the project.  The success of the PMA project essentially rests on the proactive growers who are willing to be innovative and accept possible economic risks in order to give reduced risk practices validity and be a positive example for other growers.  Finally, we can conclude that we are building a foundation of pest management information that will result in a better understanding of the management of economic pests with less risk to farm workers and the environment.   

Based on what we have learned after three years of this project, it is suggested future improvements of the Almond PMA would include: 

1.  Increase monitoring through the dormant season,

2. Implement smaller, more frequent, more regionally based field meetings regarding reduced risk practices, 

3.  Add an untreated control plot to all regional sites (if the grower/cooperator would agree) to assess the impact of a no-spray regime.

A summary of the third year accomplishments of the Almond PMA demonstrates the following important points:

• Reduced risk practices appear to be controlling the pests below economic damage levels
• Growers are interested in reduced risk practices and continue to be proactive in their experimentation with, and adoption of, reduced risk practices
• Extensive orchard monitoring is the key to the success of this approach
• Other pests may begin to build populations due to the altering of spray programs
• Growers in the Almond PMA have made an unselfish commitment to continue to study reduced risk programs by remaining in the PMA for a continuous third year
• PMA field days coinciding with the traditional pesticide spray seasons (dormant and in-season) are very successful in an outreach campaign to growers
• The important elements of successful PMA field days are 1) a thorough and scientific evaluation of alternative vs. conventional methods of pest control, 2) proper pest identification, and 3) timing crop protection activities using weather and monitoring data
• Multiyear funding is necessary to obtain scientifically valid data on which growers and PCA’s can make sound economic and environmental decisions regarding reduced risk programs.