Almond board to spend $4.7 million for grower efficiency

The Almond Board of California is continuing an effort to show that growers are good environmental stewards by setting aside $4.7 million for research into irrigation efficiency, dust reduction and other innovations.

The board plans to fund 82 independently conducted studies into such ideas as improved irrigation systems and catch basins for harvest to reduce dust, said Bob Curtis, the board’s director of agricultural affairs.

Many of the grants will go to University of California scientists, who will research such topics as whole-orchard recycling, groundwater recharge in almond orchards and leaf monitoring to assess water stress.

“We’re upping our game, so to speak,” Curtis told the Capital Press. One key area is investment in irrigation efficiency, he said. About $1.3 million is going into irrigation management research.

“There’s a lot of new technology coming on line and we want to vet those and get them out to growers,” he said, adding that the new machinery would make growers more efficient while being easier to use.

The initiative is the latest effort at outreach by the increasingly image-conscious almond industry, which has sought in recent years to push back against criticism that growers use too much water and that California’s massive crop places too much stress on honeybee populations.

In late 2014, the board and bee experts developed a best-practices checklist for growers and beekeepers during bloom so that bees avoid contact with pesticides, and last summer the board hosted a workshop and released a video advising growers how to reduce dust during harvest.

The board has also been funding research into the concept of grinding up whole orchards and putting the biomass material back into the ground to improve the soil.

In 2015, the board set aside $2.5 million for research into water efficiency, honeybee health and best practices. Growers’ current efforts at water use efficiency were credited for a large crop last summer during a fifth straight year of drought.

Curtis said the “orchard of the future” could involve dropping almonds onto tarps during harvest, as is done with pistachios and prunes, thereby eliminating the need for sweepers that generate dust.

“There’s a lot of pieces to this puzzle, though,” Curtis said. “We’d have to develop the right tree canopy to do this. Obviously the very large trees that we have now are not amenable to having catch frames.”

Source:http://www.capitalpress.com