IPM is “Integrated Pest Management.”

#WhatIsIPM? IPM is any approach to pest control or management that uses the least toxic, effective method to solve pest problems, including using natural predators to manage pests, hand-pulling weeds, and using traps or baits to address pest issues. It’s about understanding the options, and keeping current with new ones as they are developed.

IPM is part of daily life at CDFA – we use it when we carefully, methodically choose which tools, methods and options to use after we detect a new pest or find a new infestation that requires our response. We have a responsibility to respond to pests, diseases and other threats to California’s agriculture and environment – and we also have a responsibility to employ IPM to protect not just our crops but also the habitat and the environment on and around the working lands of California agriculture. IPM helps us ensure the safety and effectiveness of this important work.

IPM is why we use sterile fruit flies as the primary tool in response to Mediterranean fruit fly infestations in California. It’s why we release tiny, parasitic wasps that very specifically target pests including the glassy-winged sharpshooter, a tremendous threat to California’s vineyards. IPM is why we carefully schedule pesticide treatments to protect pollinators and other “good bugs.” IPM is also why we constantly evaluate and consider newly developed pesticide products and other alternatives when we need to use these tools.

IPM is an integral part of each pest response program that CDFA initiates – and it even starts before that: IPM also helps us improve the traps and other detection methods we depend upon to find destructive agricultural and environmental pests in the first place. When we use IPM to guide our decisions, we can consider and update the kinds of lures and technologies we use in our trapping, detection and survey operations.

Join CDFA, farmers, ranchers, our partners at the Department of Pesticide Regulation @CAPesticides, and other environmentally conscious organizations throughout California in celebrating IPM month by considering alternative methods, products and solutions whenever you have a pest problem.

https://youtu.be/3-K5vZkoLsg

From a Western Growers news release

Growers are keen to adopt automation to bridge the growing labor gap and ensure that their crops can be picked in time, according to the Global Harvest Automation Report, a first-of-its-kind study commissioned by Western Growers. The report is the first in a new annual series that will track, measure and report on industry progress in harvest automation across the fresh produce industry.

The Global Harvest Automation Report is part of WG’s Global Harvest Automation Initiative, which aims to accelerate ag automation by 50 percent in 10 years.

“One of the main aims of the report was to take a comprehensive look at the entire harvest ecosystem and provide a quantitative look to the Western Growers membership at how much harvest innovation is impacting their operations across fresh products for specialty crops, where the most progress is occurring, and why,” says WG VP of Innovation Walt Duflock. “Second, we wanted to provide an in-depth view of the innovators who are doing the heavy lifting by crop type, so growers would know who to contact based on the crops they grow.”

Among the findings of the report, which was prepared in collaboration with consultants at Roland Berger:

• 65 percent of participating growers have invested in automation over the past three years
• The average annual spend on automation was $350,000-$400,000 per grower
• Spending occurred in pre-harvest and harvest assist activities, including weeding, thinning, harvesting platforms and autonomous ground vehicles. It is anticipated that 30-60 percent of these activities will be automated by 2025.
• Harvest automation itself remains limited because of the technical difficulties in replicating the human hand to harvest delicate crops. It is anticipated that 20 percent of harvest activities will be automated by 2025.

From CDFA Secretary Karen Ross: “I want to commend Western Growers for its vision in creating this initiative. The report clearly and helpfully lays out the state of current possibilities as well as investments to accelerate California agriculture’s legendary commitment to innovation.”

Read The Global Harvest Automation Report. 

From a USDA news release

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that the USDA is investing $1 billion in partnerships to support America’s climate-smart farmers, ranchers and forest landowners. The new Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities opportunity will finance pilot projects that create market opportunities for U.S. agricultural and forestry products that use climate-smart practices and include innovative, cost-effective ways to measure and verify greenhouse gas benefits. USDA is now accepting project applications for fiscal year 2022.

“America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest owners are leading the way in implementing climate-smart solutions across their operations,” said Vilsack. “Through Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, USDA will provide targeted funding to meet national and global demand and expand market opportunities for climate-smart commodities to increase the competitive advantage of American producers. We want a broad array of agriculture and forestry to see themselves in this effort, including small and historically underserved producers as well as early adopters.”

For the purposes of this funding opportunity, a climate-smart commodity is defined as an agricultural commodity that is produced using agricultural (farming, ranching or forestry) practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon.

Funding will be provided to partners through the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation for pilot projects to provide incentives to producers and landowners to:

• implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on working lands,
• measure/quantify, monitor and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits associated with those practices, and
• develop markets and promote the resulting climate-smart commodities.

How to Apply

A range of public and private entities may apply, including:

• County, city or township governments
• Special district governments
• State governments
• Small businesses
• For profit organizations other than small businesses
• Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
• Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
• Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) (other than institutions of higher education)
• Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) (other than institutions of higher education)
• Private institutions of higher education, or
• Public and State-controlled institutions of higher education.

The primary applicant must be an entity, not an individual.

Funding will be provided in two funding pools, and applicants must submit their applications via Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on:

• April 8, 2022, for the first funding pool (proposals from $5 million to $100 million), and
• May 27, 2022, for the second funding pool (proposals from $250,000 to $4,999,999).

Proposals must provide plans to:

• Pilot implementation of climate-smart agriculture and/or forestry practices on a large-scale, including meaningful involvement of small and/or historically underserved producers;
• Quantify, monitor, report and verify climate results; and
• Develop markets and promote climate-smart commodities generated as a result of project activities

Read more here

February is Spay and Neuter Awareness Month in California, and CDFA partners in the effort with its Pet Lovers License Plate Grant Program, which is funded through the purchase, renewal, or transfer of Pet Lover’s specialized license plates through the DMV.  

Funds from the program are awarded on a competitive basis to municipal and non-profit veterinary facilities that offer low-cost or no-cost animal sterilization services. From 2019 to 2021 CDFA has averaged 10 awards for these activities, totaling $330,000 annually.

CDFA is in the fourth year of administering this grant program — it has supported thousands of animal sterilization surgeries. Despite challenges from COVID-19, the program provided financial support to spay or neuter 9,188 California dogs and cats in 2020, the last full year for which statistics are available.

From a USDA news release 

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced an investment of $1.4 billion to help a diverse rural America keep resources and wealth right at home through job training, business expansion and technical assistance. These investments are part of a suite of business and cooperative services that are projected to help create or save more than 50,000 jobs in rural America through investments made in fiscal year 2021. (NOTE — Forty California companies will receive a total of nearly $42 million).

“For some time, rural America has been at the mercy of an extraction economy, where resources are taken from rural lands only to create jobs and economic opportunity in urban and suburban areas,” Vilsack said. “That’s why USDA is committed to doing what we can to change that extraction economy into a circular economy, where value is added closer to home, so the wealth created in rural areas stays in rural areas. Today’s announcement underlines the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to helping transform the economy and bring high-paying jobs and economic opportunities to the people who need it most.”

The funding announced today will help people and businesses in diverse communities and industries throughout 49 states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. It will help companies hire more workers and reach new customers. It will open the door to new economic opportunities for communities and people who historically have lacked access to critical resources and financing. And it will help entrepreneurs, business cooperatives and farmers in nearly every state create jobs, grow businesses and find new and better markets for the items they produce.

For example:

In California, the Democracy at Work Institute will use a $200,000 Rural Cooperative Development Grant to provide technical assistance to worker-owned cooperative groups, ultimately creating 17 jobs and saving another 41 in rural areas. The organization will assist dozens of cooperatives and rural businesses as well as work with Native American and Native Alaskan groups that are organizing cooperative projects in rural California, Alaska and South Dakota.

In Oklahoma, Rolland Ranch Beef will use a $250,000 Value-Added Producer Grant to increase processing, marketing and delivery of locally raised beef to area consumers, schools and the Chickasaw Nation. Rolland Ranch Beef is a trademarked product by the Intertribal Agriculture Council, certifying it as made and produced by Native Americans. This certification adds value to the beef as more Tribes seek to buy Native foods grown by Native people.

In Iowa, Pella Cooperative Electric Association will use a $300,000 grant from the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant program to replenish the association’s revolving loan fund, which will facilitate construction of a women’s housing and health care facility.

In Maryland, military veteran- and family-owned Diparma Farms will use a $33,530 Value-Added Producer Grant to expand its free-range poultry operations. The funds will help pay operating costs associated with processing and marketing packaged free-range chicken, duck and turkey products. The project will help the business expand its customer base through partnerships with local beef and cheese producers in Washington County and surrounding areas, leading to an anticipated increase in revenue.

In Pennsylvania, Castanea Farm LLC will use a $10,244 Value-Added Producer Grant to help the family-operated farm market and sell chestnuts. The project is expected to increase its customer base by 25% and revenue by $2 per pound over a two-year period.

In Nebraska, Native360 Loan Fund Inc. will use an $8,701 Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program grant to provide business-based training and technical assistance to rural microentrepreneurs and microenterprises in 12 Nebraska counties. Native360 Loan Fund’s mission is to provide affordable credit, capital, technical assistance and related programs to help build strong and self-sufficient Native American business owners.

Read more here

CDFA recognizes Black History Month and the contributions, achievements, and sacrifices made by Black Americans on behalf of our state’s agriculture industry. It’s also a time for us to reflect and honor the Black farmers and ranchers who are planting, growing, and harvesting, and to acknowledge the historic challenges and racism they have faced. Black farmers and ranchers in California tend 120,264 acres and account for $181.3 million in ag sales, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.  

“Ag is sexy.” That is at the core of the message California Secretary of Agriculture Karen Ross said the state’s agricultural industry needs to convey to youth to attract more of them to the business and the high-tech educational disciplines necessary to train them in emerging farm technology.

Ross was at Imperial Valley College last week as a speaker at Western Growers’ AgTech Workforce Summit. The event included panel discussions on topics such as industry issues and skill identification, education and workforce development strategies, and leadership strategies.

The event was the second of four being held at rural community colleges in different areas of the state. About 70 persons, mostly local farmers, were in attendance.

Ross told them not only to encourage students to pursue studies, but “to bring a friend.” She described agriculture as one of the more “inclusive” and innovative segments of California’s economy.

“To rise to the occasion of feeding a global population of 10 billion people in the next 30 years with fewer resources and labor, we need to start investing in preparing tomorrow’s agricultural workforce today,” Ross previously explained in a press release. “Education starts in the classroom, and that’s where agriculture prominently needs to be. As the development of technology rapidly accelerates, initiatives such as AgTechX Ed lays the foundation for new tech-based education training platforms that will build an adequately trained workforce.”

Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology Director Dennis Donohue said the four AgTech summits are intended to “set the table in purposeful way” in identifying the ag industry’s workforce needs.

Western Growers recently received a $750,000 Specialty Crop Block Grant, administered by CDFA, to develop and implement a curriculum to provide California college students with best-in-class ag tech training. Donohue said the monies will be used for curriculum development and teacher training.

Link to story in the Imperial Valley Press