California almond growers faced with varying weather challenges are increasingly looking for opportunities to build soil quality by using multiple, or stacked, regenerative production practices. The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research awarded a $462,374 Seeding Solutions grant to the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) to advance climate-smart agriculture adoption for perennial crops like almonds that are grown in semi-arid environments. The Almond Board of California, Ceres AI, TriNut Farm Management Inc., UC Davis and the University of California, Merced provided matching funds for a total $924,749 investment.
The lack of comprehensive data from commercial farms limits producers’ ability to identify best management guidelines that would work best for them, including information on the benefits and tradeoffs of adopting specific practices. To date, many conservation practices like cover crops, compost and whole orchard recycling have been studied only individually, while typical farmer adoption patterns of using stacked climate-smart practices at the same time remains understudied.
Many small and midscale almond growers have already implemented innovative practices that address challenges like limited water and poor soil health. UC Davis researchers are collaborating with advisors and scientists from the East Stanislaus Resource Conservation District and University of California-Merced to collect, assess and build on this knowledge.
The researchers are also partnering with the California Farm Demonstration Network (CFDN) to establish a demonstration hub in the San Joaquin Valley that compares management approaches after orchard replanting that stacks several practices. This approach will facilitate outreach to farmers, Extension agents and policy makers and develop best management practice guidelines as well as an economic return planning tools.