New report highlights BIFS program 2001-2002

[Note: Since 1995, SAREP has provided funding for ten BIFS projects in nine different crops. SAREP submits a progress report on the BIFS program to the California State Legislature every two years. The following is the executive summary of the January 2003 BIFS Biennial Report. The full report is available on SAREP’s Web site at www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/BIFS/bifs03/. A limited number of printed copies are available from the SAREP office at (530) 752-7556; sarep@ucdavis.edu.]

In 2002 the Biologically Integrated Farming Systems (BIFS) program, administered by the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP), entered its seventh year supporting on-the-ground agricultural chemical risk/use reduction projects. Assembly Bill 3383 provided the first state funds for the program, followed in 1998 with AB 1998 which expanded the program and provided new state funds. Since 1995, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA, Region 9) has also provided matching federal funds to the program and currently is the only source of funds as no new state funds have been provided since 1998. As of January 2003, SAREP has obtained a total of $3,079,272 in outside funding for the BIFS program. This report covers the BIFS program from January 2001 through December 2002. During this time, the program was funding seven on-going projects in seven different major commodities. By December 2002, four of the seven projects had ended (rice, citrus, walnut, and strawberry), and apples and dairy/forage crop BIFS projects ended in March 2003. SAREP released a new Request for Proposals in July 2001 which resulted in funding two projects: the prune (dried plum) BIFS project was granted up to three additional years of funding and a new winegrape project was funded for three years (April 2002–March 2005).

California growers continue to face major challenges on two fronts: declining profit margins and increased environmental regulations that threaten to reduce the number of chemical pest controls as well as restrict fertility and general crop management practices. Recent pesticide regulations that affect California agriculture include the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act and the Department of Pesticide Regulation’s new ground water protection standards which, beginning in January 2004, will create further restrictions on the use of pre-emergence herbicides as well as add expense in hiring specially trained and certified pest control advisers. US-EPA has revised the Clean Water Act permit requirements (finalized in December 2002) and effluent guidelines, which will require most dairy farms to prepare comprehensive nutrient management plans to document all nutrient application on fields. This will require improvements and changes in the way in which manure nutrients are managed as they are utilized by forage crops, and necessitate reductions in commercial fertilizer use on these crops. The Clean Air Act and the Montreal Protocol call for the elimination of methyl bromide use by 2005. And finally, the 1994 CALFED agreement to provide ecosystem protection for the Bay Delta estuary provides agricultural water users a guaranteed, if reduced, water supply (CALFED 1997).

BIFS projects help farmers implement biologically integrated farming systems, bringing long-term benefits to California growers by reducing the environmental impact of agriculture on natural resources, reducing production costs, and maintaining yields and quality (Swezey & Broome, 2000). BIFS growers, in partnership with researchers, extensionists, and consultants, have demonstrated and fine-tuned research -based alternative farming practices in the areas of soil building, cover cropping, alternative pest management approaches, and optimized use of inputs including fertilizer, manure, water, and pesticides. The BIFS approach promotes farm management decisions based on monitoring. Local management teams of farmers, researchers, extensionists and other agriculture professionals meet regularly and collaborate to develop and disseminate these alternative methods (Mitchell et al. 2001).

SAREP, in collaboration with other UC colleagues and researchers, has been evaluating the BIFS program, through developing and conducting commodity-focused grower surveys and analyzing the California Pesticide Use Report (PUR). Over half of San Joaquin County’s walnut growers responded to SAREP’s countywide survey in 2002, representing almost 75 percent of the total bearing walnut acres in the county. The results showed that almost half of the respondents had been exposed to the BIFS walnut project. The results also indicated that a majority of respondents were willing to use practices that reduce their chemical and fertilizer use even when it takes a little more time or expense. SAREP also conducted a statewide survey of rice growers in 2001, and has developed statewide surveys of prune growers and dairy producers that will be conducted in 2003. Analysis of California’s PUR database conducted by UC Davis researchers has revealed trends from 1992 to 2001 in use patterns for several BIFS commodities. Key agricultural chemicals being targeted for reduction by BIFS projects such as in-season organophosphates like chloropyrifos or phosmet have been decreasing over the past nine and five years, respectively, on walnuts in San Joaquin County. Methyl parathion use has increased on this county’s walnut acres starting in 1996; however, by 2001 BIFS walnut growers were only treating five percent of their acres with this chemical and the rest of the county was treating 25 percent of their acres. In addition, the miticide propargite was used on only 10 percent of BIFS acres in 2001 in San Joaquin County, but on over 40 percent of the rest of the county acres. The dormant season organophospate (OP), diazinon, known for contaminating California’s surface waters, was applied to 30 percent of Sutter County prune acres but to only 2.5 percent of BIFS prune acres in 2001, the latest year that data is available. Analysis of the temporal and spatial patterns of pesticide use will continue.

Nine peer-reviewed publications, 11 abstracts, and several conference proceedings have been published that present results of BIFS projects or related research. Publications have ranged from a paper by Andrews et al. 2002, a landmark study in cotton that describes the development of a soil quality index to help researchers, educators and growers to understand how on-farm practices affect soil quality and yields, to the (in press) paper by Grant et al. 2003 that describes the pest management practices and achievements of the walnut BIFS project.

In addition to funding key demonstration projects through the BIFS program, SAREP has created a BIFS Workgroup with funding from the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources to support increased cross-commodity cooperation on pressing research and educational needs of California agriculture. Workgroup support funds have enabled researchers, federal and state regulators, consultants, and commodity and nonprofit organizations to share resources and ideas about how to increase the adoption of environmentally sound farming in California. In addition, the BIFS Workgroup is supporting a social science research project to look at the role that partnerships and participation play in the ability of the BIFS and BIFS-like projects to accomplish their environmental and economic objectives.

With only federal funds to support the BIFS program, SAREP is seeking to obtain additional funding to continue support of new BIFS projects. SAREP successfully obtained a specialty crops block grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture to extend the key successes of four recent BIFS projects (walnuts, prunes, dairy/forage crops, citrus) to a statewide audience. With the idea of building on the strong foundation of this ag chemical use/risk reduction program, SAREP is working to develop a consortium for on-farm conservation biology and restoration ecology. This collaborative effort will seek key research support to develop the information needed to assist growers to incorporate on-farm conservation and restoration strategies and wildlife-friendly farming practices.

PROJECT SUMMARIES

Walnut BIFS:
January 1999—December 2001
In December 2001, the San Joaquin County walnut BIFS team successfully completed a three-year project demonstrating the use of a biologically integrated orchard system for farming walnuts in the northern San Joaquin Valley. The project reduced on-farm disruption and off-site pollution from the routine use of OP insecticides that are under review due to the Food Quality Protection Act. In addition, this project demonstrated practices to reduce synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on California’s 200,000 acres of walnut orchards. To accomplish this, the project developed a farming system that used an insect pheromone for mating disruption, natural enemies of pests, cover crops, and monitoring. Twelve enrolled growers established demonstration blocks for BIFS implementation, and designated conventionally managed blocks for side-by-side comparisons. The project showed that it is possible to greatly reduce the use of conventional pesticides and maintain comparable yields (average yields of 1.6 to 2.5 dehydrated in shell tons per acre). The use of pheromone mating disruption to control codling moth, the major walnut pest, reduced applications of OP insecticides to 17 percent of the BIFS orchards as compared to 88 percent of the growers’ conventionally managed orchards. Further, the project reduced synthetic nitrogen use on 324 acres of walnuts by 57 lbs/acre between 1998 and 2000 with no decline in yields. Growers maintained yields by planting cover crops and lowered nitrogen inputs by monitoring leaf nitrogen and using this crop-based information to make judicious use of fertilizers. A countywide survey revealed that almost 40 percent of San Joaquin County walnut growers used a nitrogen budgeting approach to estimate their fertilizer requirements. Project growers were highly motivated to successfully adapt cover cropping in their orchards, which has been shown to improve water penetration, reduce the need for mowing and increase beneficial insects in the orchards. Outreach to area farmers and collaboration with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers and the walnut Pest Management Alliance insure wide dissemination of project results.

 

Prune (Dried Plums) BIFS:
January 1999—December 2004
The prune BIFS project, called the Integrated Prune Farming Practices (IPFP) program, completed its first three-year cycle in December 2001. Project managers have emphasized that for this statewide project to succeed, support for five to ten years of work is needed. Project managers applied to SAREP and were successful in obtaining additional years of support based on the accomplishments of their first three years and the recognized importance of the projects goals. It is continuing under a new round of funding for 2002-2004. The first phase of the project developed and demonstrated alternative reduced-risk farming practices on 33 prune farms in nine counties. During this time, winter applications of diazinon, an OP insecticide, were eliminated from 877 acres of the 33 enrolled farms in the demonstration/ research sites, while in 2000 in Sutter County, 30 percent of prune acres received an application. Average yields were the same between the two farming systems and ranged from 4387 to 5139 lbs/acre. Growers and the management team collaborated with PCAs to develop fifteen monitoring decision guides, or protocols, for optimizing the use of pesticides, water, nitrogen and potassium applications. Ten of these are now ready for use by growers and pest control advisers, and have the potential to greatly reduce the use of OP insecticides, synthetic fertilizers and excess applications of irrigation water. The IPFP is truly a commodity-based statewide initiative, funded by the BIFS program as well as California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Department of Pesticide Regulation, the California Dried Plum Board, and USDA.

Apple BIFS:
January 2000—March 2003
The apple BIFS project focused on reducing the use of controversial, broad-spectrum insecticides in pome fruits (apples and pears). Rapid urbanization around apple orchards in Contra Costa County has increased concerns about pesticide use in this region. A key component of the project was the use of mating disruption to reduce the numbers of codling moth, the most critical pest in apple and pear production. During this three-year project, a team of growers, pest control advisers and UC researchers used supplemental sprays in addition to mating disruption to reduce codling moth populations to very low levels. The project made substantial progress in identifying and demonstrating the products and procedures in orchard monitoring that are necessary for the successful implementation of pheromone mating disruption to control codling moth in pome fruit. BIFS fields received 33 percent less OP insecticides than the conventional fields with similar control levels.

 

Citrus BIFS:
October 1998—June 2002
The citrus BIFS project focused on reducing the use of the herbicide simazine (a known groundwater contaminant), reducing OP insecticide and fertilizer use, improving irrigation efficiency and increasing the use of cover crops. The use of pre-emergence herbicides such as simazine (Princep), diuron (Karmex) and oryzalin (Surflan) can be reduced by relying on more frequent post-emergence herbicide applications, by narrowing the area in the “middles” that the herbicide is applied to, and by growing a cover crop. It is a common belief among citrus growers that cover crops will increase the risk of frost damage in citrus orchards. However, two years of data from the citrus BIFS project show that an appropriately managed cover crop does not increase frost damage. Cover crops are beneficial to citrus orchards in providing habitat for beneficial insects, reducing soil erosion, and reducing off-site movement of agricultural chemicals. The project also showed that monitoring with moisture sensors improves irrigation efficiency, reduces costs and the likelihood of run-off.

 

Dairy BIFS:
July 1999—March 2003
The dairy BIFS project workied with 11 dairy and forage crop farmers in the San Joaquin Valley in an effort to develop and demonstrate improved liquid manure management practices. Project managers developed ways to measure nutrients in lagoon water, enabling them to reduce or eliminate applications of synthetic fertilizers to their forage crops. Average use of fertilizer by BIFS growers on their forage crop fields went from 149, 71, and 45 lbs/acre of N, P2O5, and K2O, respectively, before the project to 20, 0 and 0 lbs/acre after three years of the project. The results were cost savings to growers of on average $55/acre and as high as $116/acre, and reductions in groundwater contamination from both chemical fertilizer and dairy manure water. Growers also maintained their forage crop yields with this method. A crucial accomplishment of the project was the development of easy-to-use flow meters to measure the amounts of liquid dairy manure to be used as fertilizer on the crop and nitrogen “quick tests,” which determine the exact amounts of nutrients in the liquid manure. This will become increasingly important, as future environmental regulations for concentrated farm animal operations will require accurate record-keeping and finely controlled management practices, as well as the development of a comprehensive nutrient management plan.

 

Rice BIFS:
January 1999—December 2001
Several environmental and regulatory issues face California rice growers: air pollution from rice straw burning; movement of pesticides into the Sacramento River; production problems arising from herbicide resistance; and high production costs. The rice BIFS project addressed these by demonstrating the viability of a variety of practices such as soil incorporation of straw, winter flooding, reduced synthetic nitrogen, deep water and dry down, drill seeding and winter cover crop. Fifteen demonstration fields in Butte County were enrolled; collectively, participating growers control over 12,000 acres of rice. Participating BIFS growers used less herbicides compared to the Butte County average use rates. For weed control, the alternative non-chemical treatment of deep water and dry down were demonstrated. This resulted in substantial cost savings during two of the three years of the project. The rice BIFS growers also reduced nitrogen applications by 30 lbs/acre by using straw incorporation and winter flooding. This practice holds promise for widespread adoption, since, based on the project’s statewide survey, approximately one-third of rice growers are already practicing it.

 

Strawberry BIFS:
January 1999—March 2001
The strawberry BIFS project focused on exploring a variety of biologically based alternatives to the soon-to-be-banned fumigant methyl bromide, as well as aboveground pests like lygus. Based on intensive one-on-one scientist-grower interactions, this project enrolled 21 acres of strawberries on 14 farms. Project demonstrations showed that three cultivars, Aromas, Seascape and Pacific, are better adapted to non-fumigated conditions. In attempting to determine mulches, soil inoculants and other cultural practices beneficial to commercial strawberry production, the project showed that bacterial and mycorrhizal inoculants tested and corn gluten meal do not appear to generate benefits. Also, soil solarization is not economical in California because the soil does not get hot enough in the strawberry growing regions. In seeking alternatives to insecticides, the project revealed that periodic vacuuming of alfalfa/mustard plus “trap” crops on the borders of the strawberry plots is a potentially viable organic control against lygus bug.

 

Winegrape BIFS –
Central Coast Vineyard Team:
April 2002 – March 2005
This project has just completed its first growing season. The Positive Point System (PPS) developed by the Central Coast Vineyard Team (CCVT) describes an integrated farming system appropriate for California’s Central Coast. This point system allows an evaluation of the extent of sustainable practices incorporated by a farm manager. A higher score indicates more environmentally friendly management. The project will be collecting agricultural chemical use data to determine whether there is a correlation between a high score on the PPS and reduced use of agricultural chemicals. This project has strong grower support and represents a collaborative partnership of growers, wineries, farm advisors, researchers and consultants. The project has potential not only for chemical use/risk reduction, but also to support reduction in the off-site movement of soils and water. The CCVT also recently obtained a Clean Water Act Section 319(h) grant that will enable monitoring and assessment of off-site soil movement and how adoption of sustainable practices might affect such movement.