Kern County Pesticide Summary 2001
Kern County is one of the largest almond producing counties in California.
Since 1990, approximately 10,000 new acres have come into bearing,
increasing Kern County to more than 82,000 harvested acres.
This information is available through the California Agricultural
Statistical Service (CASS) via the World Wide Web.
Figure 3.1 depicts the amount of harvested almond acreage in Kern County
1990-1998.
Figure 3.2 depicts the amount of harvested acreage and the pounds of
organophosphates applied per acre. Despite
the amount of harvested acreage increasing, the amount of organophosphates
applied has reduced - this is a positive trend.
The organophosphates used in this report are azinphos-methyl, diazinon,
chlorpyrifos, methidathion, parathion, naled, phosmidion, and phosmet.
Carbamate use in Kern county has fluctuated over the past eleven years.
Figure 3.3 shows the pounds of carbamates applied per acre in Kern
County. With the total amount of
acres increasing and the amount of carbamate much lower than the peaks of 1995
and 1997, carbamate use per acre has decreased in Kern County.
Pyrethroids applied increase from virtually none in 1990 to approximately
0.08 pounds per acre in 2000. However,
the amount of harvested acreage rose by approximately 10,000 acres in this time
period. Figure 3.4 shows the pounds
of pyrethroids per acre in Kern County from 1990-2000.
Pounds of Bacillus thuringiensis applied in Kern County rose steadily from
1990-1995 but then began to fluctuate. Figure
3.5 shows the pounds of Bt applied in Kern County from 1990 to 2000.
Despite the fluctuations in the use of organophosphates and carbamates and
the steady increase in pyrethroid applications, the amount of acreage has also
risen steadily in Kern County. The
rise in acres must be addressed in viewing these pesticide use reports.
This remains to be the case when viewing the fluctuations of Bt use.