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In 2002 CAP
launched its Walnut Integrated Pest Management Expansion Project
in California, focused on ground-up orchard-based implementation
of mating disruption for codling moth to improve the sustainability
and environmental effects of commercial walnut production in the
Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.
California produces 99 percent of U.S. walnuts, which is approximately
38 percent of the walnuts produced worldwide. The state has 207,520
acres of walnut orchards - 180,771 acres of bearing walnuts, plus
26,748 acres of non-bearing. Over 90 percent of California's walnut
production occurs in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. This
region, particularly in the south valley, is also where the most
severe insect problems exist. Codling moth (Cydia pomonella) is
the key walnut pest in California and the most economically harmful
pest statewide. Approximately 60 percent of walnut acreage is
susceptible to codling moth damage. If left uncontrolled, codling
moth infestation can result in serious damage on more than 40
percent of the harvested crop, leading to significant economic
impacts on growers.
CAP's
PARTNERS
Growers and their organizations, the California
Walnut Marketing Board, Diamond Walnut Cooperative, Pest Management
Consultants, Researchers, Farm Advisors,
The Nature Conservancy. |
 The
project had the following objectives:
- To implement
a systematic process for further adoption of a sprayable pheromone-mediated
mating disruption system on a wide scale in commercial walnut
production
- To measure,
document, evaluate and communicate economic, biological, and
decision-making changes in the adoption of sprayable mating
disruption at the farm, project, and industry levels.
In February,
a focus group with the core cooperators was conducted by a facilitator
to develop the work plan for the 2002 field season.
Participants
were prompted to provide their views of what work needed to be
conducted to successfully accomplish project objectives during
the coming growing season.
They emphasized that, during this first field year, they
needed to experience the operation of the project and test their
individual experiences as they attempted to accomplish the project
objectives.
 The
involvement of commercial Pest Control Advisors (PCAs) was the
most important factor for increasing the implementation of reduced
risk technologies. Because of their involvement, the project
was able to implement sprayables on 900 commercial acres in a
short period of time. As they develop confidence in
new practices they are able to spread their knowledge to other
grower clients with whom they work, thereby expanding adoption.
The PCAs in this project consult on 30,000 acres of walnuts so
the impact of their participation extends well beyond the acreage
formally in the project. Their work is the necessary step
between experimentally designed research and wide scale adoption
by growers. The engagement of the private sector accomplished
in this project was the key to creating and sustaining adoption
of new technologies after the project ends.
 Project
participants implemented commercially practical field evaluation
methodologies and protocols throughout the season. At the
same time they collected biological, economic and
decision-making data. As a result of their field experience
with the project, cooperators determined that the use of sprayable
pheromones and kairomone baited traps were potentially valuable
tools in the future management of walnut pests.
This fact
was particularly evident in the expressed desire of the core cooperators
to continue the project work into a second field season (2003).
As a result of their 2002 experience, these cooperators had initiated
plans for modifying their use of the target technologies to better
determine their fit into their commercial IPM programs.
The project
and its methodology are having influence far beyond the confines
of the walnut industry. The project has been chosen as one
of the initial case studies for presentation to the Environmental
Protection Agency’s Committee to Advise on Reassessment
and Transition (CARAT). (View
CARAT case study - PDF file
size approx 400K)Thus, the experiences in implementing
reduced risk technologies and the process by which it took place
will help to inform the larger discussion on how to support and
facilitate the adoption of more environmentally sound farming
practices in the Central Valley and the rest of the country.
View the Final
report (PDF file size approx 5 MB)
Outreach
Three major
articles featuring the project were published in 2002. The
first article was published in the June 19 edition of The
Sacramento Bee newspaper. This article highlighted
CAP and the walnut project effort in the Sacramento Valley.
A second
article was published in January 2002 by Diamond of California,
the state’s largest grower-cooperative walnut processor,
in their quarterly newsletter. This article, published in
the quarterly newsletter, introduced CAP and the walnut project
to all Diamond cooperators.
A third article
was published by the California Walnut Commission in its summer
newsletter. This article described the CAP project in its context
as an outgrowth of the Walnut Pest Management Alliance project
and was sent to all California walnut growers.
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