BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

The ideas to develop BIOS emerged in 1992, when staff at the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) Foundation and University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP) began discussions on promoting ecological approaches to agriculture. Both groups wanted to initiate a project to influence the research-funding priorities of commodity boards, which in California strongly influence agricultural research conducted by public institutions, as well as agricultural policy. (See Box 2)

CAFF and UC SAREP developed a joint work-plan to:

• select one or two commodities with high pesticide use patterns;

• identify production practices that could reduce or eliminate targeted pesticides;

• create a grassroots outreach program to support farmer experimentation with identified alternative approaches;

• work with grassroots farmer groups to identify important areas of research that could lead to reduced pesticide use; and

• influence the funding decisions of the commodity board.

CAFF Foundation and UC SAREP selected almonds as the initial commodity and Merced County as the initial location. Almonds are the states sixth most valuable crop (1993 estimated farm sales totaled $911 million) and rank second in overall pesticide use. Several almond farmers in the county with well-established alternative production systems had achieved documented success in reducing pesticides, keeping insect damage low, and remaining economically competitive (Hendricks, 1995). In addition, the CAFF Foundation had a grassroots farmer network in Merced County. Indeed, many farmers had personal relationships with the foundation, UC Cooperative Extension-Merced, UC SAREP, and Pest Control Advisers (PCAs). Moreover, the Almond Board of California was likely to support new research projects addressing alternatives to pesticides.

The collaborative activities of CAFF Foundation, UC SAREP, UC Cooperative Extension-Merced County, local farmers, and their PCAs, along with funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Central Valley Agricultural Initiative of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, led to the start of a three-year demonstration project called Biologically Integrated Orchard Systems (BIOS) to help Merced County almond farmers and PCAs reduce their reliance on agricultural chemicals by experimenting with various production practices leading to biologically integrated systems. Such systems maintain or enhance naturally occurring biological processes for pest and fertility management.

The BIOS project encouraged diverse agricultural community members to participate in a program that has led to the exchange and synthesis of practical and highly technical contributions. CAFF Foundation recognized that participants undergoing the transition would need a broad range of easily accessible information, skills, and services, so it assembled a consortium of farmers, private agricultural consultants, University of California (UC) personnel, private businesses, and USDA and other governmental agency staff to meet these needs. Also, the pioneering farmers who had already adopted biologically integrated almond systems served as mentors and their farms as models to start the project.

A management team, composed of several consortium members, provides most of the technical assistance. This team has two farmers, two independent pest-control advisers (PCAs), one UC scientist, one UC Farm Adviser, one USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service District Conservationist, and a project coordinator from CAFF Foundation. The team reaches participants through customized farm-management plans, a monitoring program, field days, workshops, problem-solving meetings, seminars, videos, newsletters, reports, and technical papers. The project coordinator facilitates regularly scheduled team meetings to plan and evaluate activities. These meetings and all other activities are designed to foster the mutual sharing of experiences and insights. On-going evaluations and a commitment to flexibility allow the projects to assess and adapt to participants’ needs. The BIOS program expanded beyond Merced county in 1994, adding projects in Stanislaus and Yolo/Solano counties, and in 1995-96 expanded into three additional counties.

 

BIOS Goals, Approach and Activities

The BIOS program goals have evolved as new projects are added and existing ones change. An expanded set of goals and objectives was drafted in February 1996. (See Box 3)

Farmers and PCAs have taken an active role in the management teams and in the project in general. Among other things, they have demonstrated practices that work in local conditions, and given advice on how to integrate them into an overall operation. The significant involvement of farmers and PCAs in designing and implementing project activities has helped BIOS become known as both an innovative extension program and a biologically integrated systems approach to farm management. (See Box 4)

 

Project Coordination

The management team and CAFF Foundation staff share principal responsibility for project design and execution. CAFF Foundation assembled a management team rich in farming experience, scientific expertise, and community support, and the project coordinator created a team environment by assuming the role of meeting facilitator rather than a top-down group leader.

To guide implementation, BIOS uses a team-developed "prototypic management plan" that is customized to fit each participant's farm. The plan covers only practices within the scope of project goals, not all aspects of the farm operation. The plan leaves room for different production practices and farmer preferences, such as choices of irrigation systems and cover-crop mixes. The management team developed monitoring protocols and monitoring forms for collecting information on a variety of agro-ecological factors.

To recruit and enroll BIOS farmer participants for the 30 places in the program, the management team developed qualifying criteria and responsibilities and conducted community outreach. Participants themselves had to want to reduce inputs, be willing to enroll 20 to 30 acres of their land in the project, and commit themselves to monitoring insects, keeping records, and sharing collected data and information. The management team and CAFF Foundation then developed an outreach strategy, which included media announcements, personal farm visits, and public meetings, to reach potentially interested people and to attract and recruit an active and dynamic group of participants with experience in a range of growing conditions and practices common in the area. After carrying out these recruitment activities, 26 farmers and 10 PCAs were selected and enrolled in the first year. Enrollees worked with the management team to customize the prototypic management plan to fit specific farm conditions and farmer preferences. The customized plan included concrete suggestions for switching to biologically integrated systems and included suggestions for cover crops, plants that attract beneficial insects, and other remedies. Several farms faced thorny management issues that required input from management team members who were not part of the site visit team.

This process of developing customized farm management plans helped build the management team's capacity and establish long-term collaborative relationships among the participants and team members. Informal interviews allowed them to exchange knowledge and better understand the almond-production system. In the project’s second year, the customized farm plans were fine-tuned using a process similar to the original formula.

CAFF Foundation staff and BIOS management team members helped organize and coordinate discount and rebate programs and donations of cover-crop seed, beneficial insects and mites, insectary shrubs and trees, insect traps, soil and leaf tissue-sample laboratory services, and farm implements. As part of the BIOS financial incentive package, CAFF Foundation staff also helped facilitate the USDA Consolidated Farm Services Agency (CFSA) SP-53 program application process. Technical assistance and practice certification were provided through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which cost-shares up to $20 per acre for perennial and specialty crops, and up to $7 per acre for row crops with farmers who demonstrate a 20-percent reduction in nitrogen fertilizer or pesticide application. Farmers in this program must present usage-records of the materials previously used and document reduced applications in an Integrated Crop Management Plan. Together, the customized farm plan and the prototypic farm-management plan can serve as the Integrated Crop Management plan required by the program.

 

On-Going BIOS Activities

The BIOS project uses diverse educational materials and formats to disseminate information, provide technical support, and build analytical and problem-solving capacities. To accommodate various learning styles, the educational formats used include hands-on field activities, oral presentations, group discussions, videos, and written materials.

Farmer and PCA meetings are held at key points during the season. Anyone in the agricultural community can attend. Group meetings have a flexible format, responding to farmer needs and weather conditions, and they always include time for discussion to encourage input and feedback from farmers and PCAs. The meeting format (whether field day, workshop, problem-solving meeting, or seminar) varies with the time of year and the topics covered. The coordinating staff at CAFF Foundation arranges certification credit for PCAs and other agricultural consultants who attend BIOS group meetings.

Each participating farmer receives individual technical support from the management team, through a "hot line" during the first year and then through additional farm-site visits. As the project evolved, the management team needed regular contacts with participants to revise and fine-tune customized farm-management plans. One response to these needs is a "buddy system" in which each participant is assigned to a management team member who will answer questions. Management team members also make follow-up site visits when needed.

The BIOS Buddy System provides another form of outreach to participants who cannot always make group meetings. The system also helps catch problems before they start and brings continuity to individual technical support. However, this approach does require considerable management team time.

Regularly scheduled management team meetings provide a forum to discuss past, current, and future project activities. Feedback from project participants, topics and speakers for the next group meeting, and team member responsibilities (farm visits, buddy system), number among the topics addressed.

The project includes a monitoring program; in-season weekly field monitoring in each BIOS block, periodic specialized field monitoring, and an outreach strategy to disseminate findings. Participants receive a monitoring plan and forms to be completed weekly based on protocols developed by the management team. The monitoring plans outline how to spot specific insect pests or damage, as well as common beneficial insects and spiders. Pest management decisions are left in the hands of the farmers or their PCAs.

The implementation of the monitoring program has grown and evolved. At the end of the first season, participants told CAFF that the monitoring program was less useful than the other project elements, so CAFF hired a Monitoring Coordinator and assistant to oversee and improve the collection and dissemination of monitoring information.

CAFF Foundation offers participants and other community members various publications, including BIOS Update (a newsletter featuring summaries of presentations and discussions from group meetings, news on miscellaneous topics in biologically integrated systems, and announcements of upcoming BIOS events), information on farm practices, a "BIOS reader" that includes technical articles on biologically integrated systems, and BIOS for Almonds: A Practical Guide to Biologically Integrated Orchard Systems Management - a production manual based on the experiences of BIOS farmers, the Merced and Stanislaus almond-management teams, and scientific research.