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Pear growers update report on sustainability — Water Tech - AG Supply

As more farmers and ranchers focus on farming sustainably, California pear growers point out that they have been farming sustainably long before the term became well-known.

“Our pear growers have embraced an integrated pest management program for many years and there have been a lot of resources put into making it work,” said Chris Zanobini, executive director of the California Pear Advisory Board. “From a growing standpoint, they were ahead of the curve in finding ways to control pests back before IPM was even the norm.”

To update information on pear farmers’ adoption of sustainable practices, the board asked farmers to complete a California Pear Sustainability Practices Survey. Administered by Sureharvest Inc., an agricultural sustainability program design firm, the survey follows one first completed by pear growers in 2009. Results from the updated survey are currently being tabulated and will be released soon, Zanobini said.

While definitions of sustainability differ among various users of the term, the CPAB defines it this way: “The concept and practice of balancing economic prosperity, environmental stewardship, and social responsibility so they together lead to an improved quality of life for ourselves and future generations.”

Sustainable practices include general farm management, IPM, soil and nutrient management, energy management, water management, ecosystem management and employer practices, Zanobini said.

California pear growers demonstrate a high level of adoption of IPM practices. For example, 95 percent report scouting for key pests throughout the year in order to use pest control measures only when absolutely necessary. In addition, 95 percent of the farmers use mating-disrupting pheromones as their primary treatment for codling moths.

Pheromone dispensers—known as puffers because they periodically emit a puff of pheromone into the pear orchard—are the primary tool used today. But Zanobini said pheromone control really started many years earlier, with twist ties that were placed on pear trees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta pear-growing region.

“The program was so effective that it expanded statewide, and then it went to a regional program that went from California all the way up into Canada,” he said.

Fifth-generation delta pear grower Chuck Baker said he has been using pheromone confusion of codling moths for 15 years.

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