SANTA CRUZ, California, September 8, 2004 (ENS) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has tapped the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) to lead a research program that aims to prepare the organic industry for rapid growth.
Organic agriculture is predicted to grow to 10 to 20 percent of California cropland by 2024. The $571,000 grant will help bolster scientific knowledge about organic systems and to strengthen the Central Coast network of organic farmers and agricultural researchers.
In collaboration with farmers, agroecology researchers at UCSC have pioneered organic production methods for strawberries and other important regional crops.
This project will build on those successes and prepare the organic industry for continued expansion by developing baseline nutrient management tools and addressing stubborn challenges, such as soil pathogens and pest management.
"Conventional farmers have decades worth of research to draw on, while organic growers have very little scientific data to rely on," said environmental studies professor Carol Shennan, director of the UCSC Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems and one of four UCSC leaders of the project. "Organic production is a complex system that integrates soil fertility, crop rotation, water management, and pest and disease control. It requires a systems approach, but agricultural research has historically tended to focus on narrow, single-issue problems."
The grant will fund a series of coordinated experiments at multiple locations designed to give farmers hands-on information.
The results will be dispersed throughout the farming community with the help of organizations such as California Certified Organic Farmers, the Organic Farming Research Foundation, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association. UCSC environmental studies professor Stephen Gliessman recalled the skepticism that greeted early collaborations.
"When we started this work 17 years ago with Jim Cochran of Swanton Berry Farms, people said, 'You're crazy. You aren't going to grow strawberries organically,'" Gliessman said. "Now, the USDA is saying, 'This is important. It has to be done.' It is the farmers who took the risk."
In Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, more than $140 million, or 6 percent, of the region's $2 billion vegetable production in 2001 was certified organic, according to Shennan, and the two counties generated more than $400 million gross value in strawberries.
The California organic agriculture industry has grown quickly, producing sales of $340 million in 2003, according to the California Department of Agriculture Organic Program.
The state produces nearly half of the total organic vegetables certified in the United States – strawberries are the most lucrative organic commodity in the state on a per acre basis, valued at $17.5 million.
"Organic farmers face the same production challenges as conventional growers, but the research community has overlooked their needs," said Shennan. "UC Santa Cruz is in a good position to help fill in the gaps of scientific knowledge."
Copyright Environment News Service
Loading...