Process Improvement for Regenerative Practices in Nut Trees

If you are like the majority of California pistachio and almond farmers and have a multi-generational family farm, your goal is to pass it down to your children or grandchildren. This means that land stewardship is a key focus and sustainable business decisions are foundational for keeping operations strong and resilient for the long term. You are striving for a sustainable food system that connects your business and consumers, building value over the long term. To achieve this, you need a path for continuous improvement along the way.

What’s your current assessment? Update your baseline.

Review the practices you have in place and document those that need improvement to grow your crops sustainably. Growers don’t all start from the same place and many nut growers have already made steps toward conservation. You may already be using some sustainable or regenerative practices such as cover crops, or water usage management. This means it’s important to do an overall assessment of where you are today so that you have a baseline against which to measure continuous improvement over time.

Begin data collection

Data is your friend in this effort.

Use ag technologies such as IoT sensors above ground, below ground, or on the leaf, to benchmark where you are today, your soil health, water infiltration and capacity, salinity levels, your average yields, the amount of inputs you are using today, and farm profitability numbers.

Inspect your irrigation system

No matter how you look at it, nut trees consume a lot of water so you want to avoid wasting a drop. Even if you have already moved to a more water conscious drip or micro irrigation system, issues can arise. In particular, irrigation leaks can waste gallons of water. Take a look at:

• Filtration
• Efficiency
• Uniformity of delivery
• Leaks
• Runoff
• Water quality

Keeping your irrigation system well maintained is critical to water conservation efforts.

Get support

Start a support group. Talk with other growers in your area and compare approaches and numbers. What are they doing? What’s worked for them and what hasn’t?

Talk to your local cooperative focusing on sustainability such as Greenpoint Ag or regenerative ag or sustainability specialists covering a number of different crops such as Understanding Ag.

Look for educational and farm research programs such as TAPS, Master Irrigators, university extension programs and demonstration fields. AquaSpy supports a number of these programs.

Explore standards

It might be helpful to utilize defined standard to focus your efforts. The Leading Harvest Farmland Management Standard is designed to address farmers’ unique needs and grow with agricultural operation over time, providing a framework for continuous improvement. The Leading Harvest Farmland Management Standard 2020 program is a third-party audited certification program that provides assurance for the sustainability of farmland management. It is an outcome-based program which relies on users to provide conformance evidence to demonstrate their conformance with the program.

Look for grants and funding programs

Look for state and federal programs. Some examples include:

California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Healthy Soils Program https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/healthysoils/

Blue Diamond USDA Climate Smart Grant https://bluediamondgrowers.com/usda-climate-smart-grant/

Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) https://www.almonds.com/tools-and-resources/grower-tools/incentive-opportunities

Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/rcpp-regional-conservation-partnership-program

When’s the best time to start or hone your regenerative practices for your nut trees? It’s today. For more information on how AquaSpy data insights can help you with your baseline metrics and process control for continuous improvement, contact sales today.

Related articles:

https://aquaspy.com/start-your-regenerative-ag-continuous-improvement-journey-here/

https://aquaspy.com/impacts-and-risks-from-rising-soil-salinity-in-agricultural-soil/