It\u2019s been a tough year for the almond. Vilified and beaten down, the nut has come to symbolize the California drought. While the reasons for and solutions to the drought are complicated and nuanced, the almond\u2019s reputation has nonetheless suffered.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, farmers across the board are under increasing pressure \u2013 from regulatory requirements and increasing consumer demand for transparency \u2013 to modify their fertilizer application practices and thereby reduce nitrogen losses to the air and water.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there\u2019s good reason for the almond to cheer up \u2013 a new Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG) from the California Department of Food & Agriculture will support the state\u2019s almond growers in their ongoing efforts to make nut production more sustainable, without sacrificing yields.<\/p>\n
Coupled with a separate but complementary Conservation Innovation Grant<\/a> (CIG) that will help connect almond growers to emerging agricultural carbon markets, the almond has a chance to showcase its environmental leadership. Here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n Leverage science & economics<\/strong><\/p>\n The University of California Davis is identifying the best opportunities for almond growers to reduce nitrogen losses to the environment. And the Almond Board of California has been leading efforts to understand how to implement these greenhouse gas and water quality practices with California farmers. Once finalized, field testing these science-based practices with pilot growers will have tangible environmental benefits.<\/p>\n According to the Almond Board, initial estimates indicate that reducing nitrogen fertilizer use by as little as nine percent per acre could reduce fertilizer costs by 12 percent, without impacting yield.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As a part of our existing collaboration, the Almond Board and EDF will:<\/p>\n According to the Almond Board, initial estimates indicate that reducing nitrogen fertilizer use by as little as nine percent per acre could reduce fertilizer costs by 12 percent, without impacting yield.<\/p>\n Create a protocol<\/strong><\/p>\n Now that the first crop-based protocol is available for farmers<\/a>, almond growers are ready to get on board and demonstrate that they, too, are ready to voluntarily participate in the California cap-and-trade market.<\/p>\n Once the almond farming practices recommended by UC Davis\u2019s research are incorporated into a protocol, the protocol could be leveraged for other woody perennial crop growers to get official credit for conservation practices that reduce emissions.<\/p>\n SBCG project partners will therefore work to adapt a protocol for use by California almond growers. As a parallel effort, the CIG funding will support<\/a> development of an overarching nitrogen fertilizer management protocol that can apply to multiple annual and perennial crops.<\/p>\n Spread the word<\/strong><\/p>\n The practices developed under this grant will initially apply to almond growers across 800,000 acres in California, and will enhance existing fertilizer efficiency practices. These practices could then be expanded to more than 1 million acres with the inclusion of walnuts and pistachios.<\/p>\n With almonds out in front and leading sustainability efforts, they\u2019ll inspire further innovation and research into new technologies that minimize fertilizer losses \u2013 across California and beyond.<\/p>\n Related links<\/em> It\u2019s been a tough year for the almond. Vilified and beaten down, the nut has come to symbolize the California drought. While the reasons for and solutions to the drought are complicated and nuanced, the almond\u2019s reputation has nonetheless suffered. Meanwhile, farmers across the board are under increasing pressure \u2013 from regulatory requirements and increasing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39796,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120554,71922],"tags":[234,75683,71798,200,71641,190,42756,63845,36786,83956,71799,61056,413,71927,421,83780,84809],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","category-water","tag-agriculture-tag","tag-almond-board-of-california","tag-almonds","tag-california","tag-california-air-resources-board","tag-drought","tag-farmers","tag-food-production","tag-food-security","tag-nut","tag-pistachios","tag-soil-health","tag-sustainability","tag-uc-davis","tag-usda","tag-walnuts","tag-water-use"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39796"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15451,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5591\/revisions\/15451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5591"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nAgricultural carbon markets get yet another boost
\n<\/a>California’s drought is real, but it’s dusted up a lot\u00a0of hot air<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"