By Edward Ortiz

California environmental regulators are exploring how rice farmers can reduce carbon emissions, paving the way for crops to become part of the state’s greenhouse gas reduction program and affecting one of the Sacramento Valley’s powerhouse agricultural industries.

The California Air Resources Board this month directed staff to begin the process for including rice in the state’s cap-and-trade program, marking the first time crop farmers could receive credits for reducing emissions through a change in growing practices.

To sell carbon emission allowances, rice farmers would be required to flood their fields for shorter periods. This would reduce the rice straw decomposition process that leads to the emission of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Most of the rice in the Sacramento Valley is grown by farmers who flood their rice fields, typically to a depth of 4 to 5 inches, prior to seeding.

The board action is no small matter for rice growers in the Sacramento Valley who grow most of the 550,000 acres of rice cultivated in the state. Including a crop into the program would also resonate across the state since the board would likely follow suit with other crops, said Robert Parkhurst, director of greenhouse gas markets for the Environmental Defense Fund.

“What has been done with the rice protocol can be leveraged to other crops.” Parkhurst said. “Rice is definitely a gateway crop.”

The CARB comment period on including rice in the cap and trade program begins in late February and lasts 15 days. It will then be followed by a 45-day information-gathering period before a board vote is taken on whether to approve adoption. That vote is not expected until the summer, said Dave Clegern, spokesman for the Air Resources Board.

Before the board can decide, it will have to determine what greenhouse gas emissions are produced during different stages of rice cultivation, such as when rice straw is baled and taken off a farm, Clegern said.

“We need more data,” Clegern said.

Farmers would join the program on a voluntary basis and would participate for a 10-year period, said Clegern. Farmers would get paid a market price for each carbon credit sold at auction. Each credit is equal to a ton of carbon dioxide.

Other factors come into play and complicate the issue, including the fate of migratory birds and the will of duck hunters, both of which use flooded rice fields as surrogate wetland. Shortening the time rice fields are flooded will remove crucial wetland habitat for birds and force them to congregate in smaller areas, increasing the risk of avian disease.

Questions also abound for rice farmers, who stand to receive a new revenue stream but must consider impacts on crop production.

“It’s unclear at this time how many rice growers will change production practices to qualify for the offsets,” said Paul Buttner, environmental affairs manager of the California Rice Commission.

“At the current price of carbon, we would expect the revenue potential would be quite modest – likely less than five dollars an acre,” said Buttner.

California’s cap-and-trade program was launched in 2013 as an outgrowth of the state’s emissions-reducing law, Assembly Bill 32. The 2006 law seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The price of carbon in California’s cap-and-trade program has dipped markedly. In September 2012, the price of a California carbon allowance future peaked at $23.75, according to the market tracking firm Intercontinental Exchange. As of Dec. 24, the carbon allowance future had fallen to $12.58.

It is the first such program in the United States that caps all greenhouse gas emissions from major industries and includes penalties when those industries are in noncompliance.

The program allows industries and other entities that produce greenhouse gases to offset what they produce by purchasing credits or allowances from activity elsewhere that reduces greenhouse gas emissions. If rice were approved for the program, it would join five sectors that include U.S. forests, livestock, urban forests, ozone depleting substances and mines.

Most of California’s major greenhouse gas emitters – those that emit more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year – are required to comply with cap-and-trade regulations. Under AB 32, a company or utility may only emit as much carbon as it has purchased allowances for, over a set period of time.

Purchases, sales or trades of offsets or allowances take place during quarterly auctions run by the Air Resources Board. There have been eight such auctions since the program began.

California’s cap-and-trade program has already operated in the agricultural realm through the livestock industry. In that effort, methods have been put into place to quantify and report greenhouse gas emission reductions on dairy, cattle and swine farms where biogas control systems have been installed to reduce manure methane emissions.

The livestock effort started in January 2012 and has generated 712,000 offsets, according to CARB data.

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“I tried barking. Maybe this is what it takes to ride on the front seat of the pickup.”

Thanks to everyone for playing in CDFA’s first-ever caption contest. We had nearly 60 entries! Congratulations to our winner, Harold Hackett. His caption is on the left.

This nine-and-a-half foot ceramic cow is named Daisy, and it comes from the people at Cow Parade, an organization that has sponsored public art displays of cow sculptures around the world. In 2015, in a campaign co-sponsored by Got Milk?, you’ll start to see newly-created cows turn up around Sacramento. At the conclusion of the “parade” next year, the sculptures will be auctioned-off for charity.  We look forward to Daisy and her chums brightening our days next year!

Tiny, stingerless wasps intended for release in Riverside.

By Sandra Emerson

RIVERSIDE – Hundreds of wasps imported from Pakistan were released into a 7.5-acre biocontrol grove of citrus trees near the UCR Botanic Gardens by entomologists Tuesday.

The wasps, Diaphorencyrtus aligarhensis, are a natural known predator of the Asian citrus psyllid, which acts as a carrier of “Huanglongbing” — a devastating disease to citrus trees.

“We know from past experience this insect and disease combination can be very devastating to citrus,” said Mark Hoddle, the director of the UCR Center for Invasive Species Research.

“It’s had a huge impact in Florida. They’ve lost over 60,000 acres, maybe more, of citrus there and it cost them $200 million in profits. Six thousand people lost their job and the industry has started to detract in Florida.”

The insect was first detected in California in 2008 in San Diego and Imperial counties.

The psyllid has been detected in 12 California counties, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The disease was first detected in April 2012 in the Hacienda Heights area.

The insect poses a threat to California’s $2 billion citrus industry.

Hoddle and other entomologists traveled to Pakistan six times over a 2 ½ year period looking for natural enemies of the psyllid. They ended up in the Punjab region, which is about a 70 percent climate match to Southern California.

It is also thought that the Punjab region is the psyllid’s area of origin, Hoddle said.

They were given permission by the Department of Agriculture on Nov. 24 to release the wasp. It had been in quarantine for three years and underwent about two years of safety testing, Hoddle said.

The wasp poses no risk to the environment and does not sting people or pets. It does not eat plants or spread disease.

Hoddle in 2011 released a psyllid-attacking wasp, Tamarixia radiata, into the same grove. This species attacks psyllid nymphs during their fourth and fifth developmental stages, while the species released Tuesday attacks the nymphs during the second and third developmental stages, Hoddle said.

Psyllid nymphs have five developmental stages after they hatch from the egg.

Only the female wasps kill the psyllid, and they do it in two ways. They lay their eggs inside the psyllid nymph and the wasp larva then feeds on the nymph or the female uses her “ovipositor” to stab the nymph until it bleed. She then eats the insect’s blood, which provides the protein she needs to mature eggs.

The university’s biological control program aims to suppress the amount of psyllid in agricultural settings and urban areas, where it is difficult to spray residential trees.

The wasps, about 1/16-of-an-inch-long versus the 1/8-of-an-inch-long psyllid, will spread through flying and the wind.

“Some estimates suggest probably more citrus grown in people’s backyards than in all commercial areas combined in California,” Hoddle said.

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Please make your caption entries in the comments section. When we announce a winner we’ll explain why the cow is here at CDFA headquarters. Thanks for playing!

Sometimes it takes a crisis like climate change to reveal a golden opportunity. Our rice farmers in Northern California have long been exemplary stewards of their land, both in terms of providing habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife and for their ongoing efforts to work with environmental and research organizations to improve their farming practices. Now, in response to climate change, they stand ready to take the next step.

This week, the California Air Resources Board will hear a staff proposal for a set of management practices that will give rice growers incentives that could be used to reduce the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. For these farmers, who grow more than 95 percent of California’s rice within 100 miles of our state capital, it presents a proactive opportunity to contribute to the state’s climate change objectives.

The proposed Compliance Offset Protocol Rice Cultivation Projects would allow rice farmers in the Sacramento Valley to generate greenhouse gas offsets that can then be sold in the state’s carbon trading market. Rice would represent the first crop-based agricultural offset protocol, paving the way for additional agriculture-based protocols to be developed.

The management practices listed in this protocol are based on sound science and have proved successful around the world. We know that these practices will be adopted slowly at first, but we are hopeful for increased participation in the future as more growers learn about the benefits of these practices.

I am pleased to see progress toward this voluntary incentive program for rice farmers in the Sacramento Valley, where they have already made tremendous strides on other environmental issues. For example, rice farmers here provide their agricultural fields during the winter months as valuable open space and habitat for 230 species of wildlife and 7 million ducks and geese that migrate along the Pacific Flyway each year.

It is worth noting that, in developing these practices, the ARB took precautions such as excluding the Butte Sink Wildlife Management Area, which has the highest concentration of waterfowl per acre in the world, to ensure that this important wildlife habitat is unaffected by the implementation of any rice cultivation projects.

Even more importantly, the ARB has elected to exclude program options that could lead to reduced winter flooding throughout the Valley, a practice that now provides critical habitat to millions of waterbirds in a state where 95 percent of original wetlands are gone. Additionally, the development of this protocol has exemplified what collaboration is all about by bringing together the rice industry, environmental groups, multiple state agencies, national organizations and federal partners.

We at the California Department of Food and Agriculture call the multiple benefits to nature provided by farmers and ranchers beyond food production “Ecosystem Services.” These services include valuable open space and wildlife habitat and farming practices that enhance environmental quality, provide recreational opportunities and offer social benefits.

The protocol provides financial incentives for growers to help the state reach its emission-reduction goals by 2020. It’s timely, and recognizes rice farmers for one of the many ecosystem services they provide. Similar carbon crediting initiatives are taking place all over the country. For example, the USDA worked with Chevrolet to purchase almost 40,000 carbon dioxide reduction tons generated on working ranch grasslands in the Prairie Pothole region of North Dakota.

As the magazine Modern Farmer put it, “everyone agrees that climate change has and will have a disastrous or at least dramatic effect on agriculture.” With California’s rich history of innovative farmers who promote environmental stewardship, provide ecosystem services and strive for sustainability, it makes sense that the California rice industry is at the forefront of incorporating climate-friendly practices.

This protocol has the potential to move early innovators in the industry to get involved and start moving the needle on climate change. My department will continue to work across agencies to encourage its implementation, along with technology-based verification techniques. Any protocol proposed to the ARB for consideration must have real, quantifiable, verifiable and enforceable metrics, without compromising crop yields.

California agriculture is incredibly resilient and innovative, and our farmers offer many benefits beyond food production. Voluntary incentive programs, such as the rice protocol, offer farmers in California meaningful opportunities to ensure that as they produce food, they are also providing important environmental benefits.

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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that greater protection is now available from the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program for crops that traditionally have been ineligible for federal crop insurance. The new options, created by the 2014 Farm Bill, provide greater coverage for losses when natural disasters affect specialty crops such as vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, floriculture, ornamental nursery, aquaculture, turf grass, ginseng, honey, syrup, and energy crops.

“These new protections will help ensure that farm families growing crops for food, fiber or livestock consumption will be better able to withstand losses due to natural disasters,” said Vilsack. “For years, commodity crop farmers have had the ability to purchase insurance to keep their crops protected, and it only makes sense that fruit and vegetable, and other specialty crop growers, should be able to purchase similar levels of protection. Ensuring these farmers can adequately protect themselves from factors beyond their control is also critical for consumers who enjoy these products and for communities whose economies depend on them.”

Previously, the program offered coverage at 55 percent of the average market price for crop losses that exceed 50 percent of expected production. Producers can now choose higher levels of coverage, up to 65 percent of their expected production at 100 percent of the average market price.

The expanded protection will be especially helpful to beginning and traditionally underserved producers, as well as farmers with limited resources, who will receive fee waivers and premium reductions for expanded coverage. More crops are now eligible for the program, including expanded aquaculture production practices, and sweet and biomass sorghum. For the first time, a range of crops used to produce bioenergy will be eligible as well.

“If America is to remain food secure and continue exporting food to the world, we need to do everything we can to help new farmers get started and succeed in agriculture,” Vilsack said. “This program will help new and socially disadvantaged farmers affordably manage risk, making farming a much more attractive business proposition.”

To help producers learn more about the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program and how it can help them, USDA, in partnership with Michigan State University and the University of Illinois, created an online resource. The Web tool, available atwww.fsa.usda.gov/nap, allows producers to determine whether their crops are eligible for coverage. It also gives them an opportunity to explore a variety of options and levels to determine the best protection level for their operation.

If the application deadline for an eligible crop has already passed, producers will have until Jan. 14, 2015, to choose expanded coverage through the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. To learn more, visit the Farm Service Agency (FSA) website at www.fsa.usda.gov/nap or contact your local FSA office at offices.usda.gov. The Farm Service Agency (FSA), which administers the program, also wants to hear from producers and other interested stakeholders who may have suggestions or recommendations on the program. Written comments will be accepted until Feb. 13, 2015 and can be submitted through www.regulations.gov.

These new provisions under the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program were made possible through the 2014 Farm Bill, which builds on historic economic gains in rural America over the past five years, while achieving meaningful reform and billions of dollars in savings for the taxpayer. Since enactment, USDA has made significant progress to implement each provision of this critical legislation, including providing disaster relief to farmers and ranchers; strengthening risk management tools; expanding access to rural credit; funding critical research; establishing innovative public-private conservation partnerships; developing new markets for rural-made products; and investing in infrastructure, housing and community facilities to help improve quality of life in rural America. For more information, visit www.usda.gov/farmbill.

Link to news release

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is publishing a rule that outlines how it will improve the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), one of USDA’s largest conservation programs. The interim final rule includes program changes authorized by Congress in the 2014 Farm Bill.

USDA has established a 60-day comment period for the rule. The rule is expected to be available in the Federal Register and regulations.gov on Friday, Dec. 12. Beginning Friday, public comments can be submitted through regulations.gov or by mailing them. Comments are due by Feb. 10, 2015. Full details are in the Federal Register notice.

“This interim final rule provides a roadmap to help streamline and simplify EQIP for farmers and ranchers,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “We strongly encourage agricultural producers, private forest landowners and stakeholders to provide comments on our implementation processes. This feedback will help us improve our operation and deliver technical and financial assistance more efficiently to our nation’s agricultural producers and forest landowners.”

The changes are intended to simplify the EQIP regulation regarding conservation practice scheduling, payment limitations and other administrative actions. Vilsack said USDA has enhanced EQIP by streamlining the delivery of technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers and forest landowners nationwide.

Highlights of program changes in this rule include the following:

• Requires at least 5 percent of available EQIP funds be targeted for conservation practices that promote wildlife habitat;
• Establishes EQIP as a contributing program for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program;
• Increases the advanced payment from 30 percent to 50 percent for eligible historically underserved producers, including beginning farmers, to help purchase material or contract services;
• Targets assistance to veteran farmers and ranchers including eligibility for the new 50 percent advance payment and up to 90 percent of the cost to implement EQIP conservation practices;
• Increases the payment limitation for EQIP from $300,000 to a maximum of $450,000 for benefits received during 2014-2018 and removes the option for a waiver to exceed payment limitations;
• Eliminates the requirement for a program contract to remain in place for one year after the last practice has been implemented, allowing practices to be scheduled through the tenth year of a contract;
• Includes an option to waive the irrigation history requirement under certain conditions;
• Incorporates the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program functions into EQIP.

This rule follows the publication of the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) interim final rule in the Federal Register on November 5. USDA is also seeking comments for the CSP rule.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) administers EQIP, a voluntary program that provides financial and technical assistance to eligible agricultural producers and forest landowners to help them address soil, water, air and related natural resource concerns on their lands in an environmentally beneficial and cost-effective manner. Resulting conservation and environmental benefits include improved water and air quality, reduced soil erosion and sedimentation, improved energy conservation, improved grazing and forest lands, and created or improved wildlife habitat on working farms, ranches and non-industrial forestlands.

EQIP has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of agricultural producers and forest landowners since its launch in 1997. From that time through 2014, USDA has invested in 596,481 contracts for a total of nearly $11 billion on nearly 232 million acres nationwide.

For more information about interim final rules for USDA NRCS’s Farm Bill conservation programs, visit the EQIP Rule Page.

For more information on technical and financial assistance available through EQIP, visit the EQIP Web page.

Link to news release