South Georgia vegetable farmers are facing their share of challenges this fall. Between heavy whitefly infestations, increased disease pressure and extreme cloud cover over the past two weeks, producers continue to deal with obstacles during this fall production season, according to Jeremy Kichler, University of Georgia Colquitt County Extension Coordinator.
“When (Hurricane) Sally came through, we got anywhere from 5 to 6 inches. We finally dried at the end of last week,” Kichler said. “The weather started getting rainy and misty. (Wednesday) was finally the first clear day we’ve had in a while. It’s been challenging the last 10 days from a weather standpoint.”
Sally brought intense rainfall and high winds to parts of Southwest Alabama and Northwest Florida but also excessive moisture to areas in Georgia. With little sunshine to dry fields out over the last two weeks, excessive moisture led to a flare up in certain diseases like PCAP in squash and powdery mildew.
“Anytime you have moisture, excessive moisture, it tends to flare up things. When you have a lot of rainfall like we had, it tends to knock down adult whiteflies, but it also brings on disease problems, too,” Kichler said.
Sally’s presence on Sept. 16, helped knock back whitefly populations, which was needed. It’s the worst whitefly outbreak since 2017.
“Every fall we just kind of hold on tight. We’re starting to deal with these whiteflies with more timely insecticide applications. We’re getting a lot more comfortable with our management schemes with that,” Kichler said. “But it’s a still a challenge with silverleaf and some of these yellow squash and zuchinnis.”
“We are holding our own. I think prices are pretty good right now from what I’ve been told. The silverleaf pressure has been pretty bad because of the whitefly pressure that we’ve had. It’s been challenging.”
An abnormally wet September has required Alabama pumpkin farmers to maintain strict fungicide applications, especially following Hurricane Sally’s trek through the state on Sept. 16.
Neil Kelly, Alabama Extension Regional agent in Southeast Alabama, said the lack of consistent sunshine over the last two weeks has created disease concerns for pumpkin growers.
“We haven’t really had a real good break in the weather and things really haven’t dried out very much since Sally came through,” Kelly said. “It’s just been important that they stick to the spray schedule and try to make weekly fungicide applications and stick with it. We’ve carried out extra spraying more so than normal. We kind of back off on some of our fungicide sprays once people start to walk through the fields.
“We had sunny warm weather leading up to this event. We’ve been getting plenty of rain and of course we irrigate. The pumpkin crop was a little bit ahead of normal. They mature out a little quicker and the vines are starting to go downhill, and then we got this wet weather. It was important for people to stick with a fungicide spray program.”
Region of Responsibility
Kelly is responsible for the Southeast part of Alabama including Barbour County, Bullock County, Coffee County, Covington County, Crenshaw County, Dale County, Geneva County, Henry County, Houston County and Pike County. He attests that certain diseases become a factor if pumpkins are growing in fields with increased moisture.
Such diseases include phytophthora, fusarium and downy mildew.
“Plant diseases and certain fruit rots become more of an issue when the pumpkins stay wet for an extended period of time. (Sally) caused some issues but it was more from plant disease issues more so than flooding,” Kelly said.
“Obviously, if the weather does not dry out a little bit, the first of October when everybody gets started with the pumpkin patches and things like that, it’s going to create some issues getting in and out of the field.”
China is on the clock with regards to the Phase One Trade Agreement, which was signed earlier this year between China and the U.S. Veronica Nigh, American Farm Bureau economist, said China has fallen behind in its initial purchasing goal and questions linger about the country’s ability to fulfill its initial obligation.
Nigh
“Thus far, both the U.S. and China have remained committed to fulfilling the Phase One agreement, which covers both 2020 and 2021. I think there’s some concerns that China won’t be able to import the dollar amount that was agreed to for 2020,” Nigh said. “Thus far, they’ve been continuing to make some fairly sizable purchases. All of the language that is coming out of China is, ‘Yeah, hey, we’re still committed to this thing.’”
Telling Three Months
Nigh believes the last few months of this calendar year will go a long way in seeing if China can and will fulfill its initial goal.
“I think we all know that China makes the big percentage of their sales in the last three months of the year; somewhere upwards of over 50% of their purchases have been those last three months. We’ve certainly seen some big commitments on commodities of late for deliveries later in the year. I think anything can happen at this point,” Nigh said.
“For January through July, China has imported almost $8 billion of Ag products. Which means to reach their commitment, they’re going to need to import about $23 billion in that August through December time period. It’s a big number, about twice what we’ve ever done in recent history. There’s a lot of lifting left to do. It’s a big country with a pretty deep pocketbook. I think anything can happen at this point.”
Impact in Pecans
China’s renewed interest in U.S. pecans could be pivotal this year to American producers enjoying a profitable harvest season. Southeast farmers are expecting a bumper crop this year but need China to remain a loyal buyer.
“If that Phase One Agreement were to go away, you’d have to be concerned about China’s desire to purchase commodities products from the U.S. if they can get it from somewhere else. There’s certain crops that maybe they have to have. Maybe they have a specific taste for pecans from the Southeast U.S. and they say, there’s no reason for us to punish our own citizens for this. We’ll go ahead and keep buying these,” Nigh said.
RALEIGH – Beginning Oct. 1, farmers markets operators and local food hubs can apply for assistance through the COVID-19 Emergency Aid for Farmers Market Operators and Local Food Hubs program. A total of $750,000 will be available from federal COVID-19 funds earmarked for North Carolina.
Troxler
Funding is meant to assist with losses from reduced number of vendors, plus offset additional expenses associated with offering personal protective equipment, hand sanitizer and handwashing stations, and added COVID-19 educational materials. Eligible categories for emergency aid include, but not limited to, labor, technology or software upgrades, infrastructure enhancements, COVID-19 education materials, PPE and test kits.
“The deadline to apply is Oct. 22, which is a fairly short application period. It is imperative that operators submit their applications quickly, so we can distribute the funds quickly to meet the federal rules,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “The pandemic has shown us the important role farmers markets and food hubs provide in communities. I am grateful the General Assembly approved the use of the CARES Act funds to ensure these sites continue to operate and exist.”
Two meetings are scheduled to help with application questions. They will be held Oct. 7 from 10-11 a.m. and Oct. 8 from 7-8 p.m. To join either session, use this link or call 1-984-204-1487, then enter Conference ID 144 849 187 followed by the # key when prompted.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in serious and substantial impacts on the food supply chain, including farmers markets and local food hubs across North Carolina. Some markets were not able to open due to state or local orders, and others had to reduce the number of vendors to ensure proper social distancing. Additionally, local food hubs lost sales opportunities due to mandated school closures and food service disruptions.
Statewide there are over 250 farmers markets, over 160 roadside stands and 20 USDA registered food hubs.
Details regarding the COVID-19 Emergency Aid for Farmers Market Operators and Local Food Hubs, including definitions of markets and food hubs, are available at http://www.ncagr.gov/disaster/documents/COVID-19.htm.
Today, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) formally requested that the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) initiate a Section 201 global safeguard investigation regarding imports of blueberries into the United States.
The American Blueberry Growers Alliance (“ABGA”) applauds USTR’s request and expects that the investigation will result in a remedy that allows the domestic industry to recover from the harmful effects of surging blueberry imports.
The ABGA is an ad hoc association of blueberry growers from across the United States. Over the past few years, ABGA’s members have lost market share and sales to massive increases in imports and have been forced to accept unreasonably low prices due to the competing prices of foreign blueberries. Imports of fresh and frozen blueberries have increased from 423 million pounds in 2015 to over 684 million pounds in 2019. Recognizing the harm that American blueberry growers have faced and will continue to face, USTR previously committed to request a Section 201 investigation on blueberries as part of the plan of multiple federal agencies announced on September 1, 2020 to help U.S. farmers of seasonal and perishable fruits and vegetables.
“On behalf of U.S. blueberry growers, I want to thank the Administration for taking this critical action. The flood of foreign imports of blueberries has caused significant damage to growers from coast-to-coast and across the heartland of this country,” stated Jerome Crosby, Chair of the American Blueberry Growers Alliance. “At a time when domestic food security is especially critical, this action is essential to preserve American farms, our families’ way of life, and our communities, and we look forward to working with the ITC in conducting its investigation.”
The ITC will immediately commence its investigation to determine whether the U.S. blueberry industry is seriously injured or threatened with serious injury by increased imports. The ITC must make this determination within 120 days of receiving USTR’s request, and this period may be extended to 150 days in extraordinarily complicated cases. The ITC will issue a report with its findings to the President of the United States within 180 days of receiving USTR’s request.
If the ITC’s injury determination is affirmative, the ITC will recommend one or more remedies to the President. Available temporary remedies include tariffs, quotas, and a combination of tariffs and quotas, among other options. The President will then decide whether to grant relief and what the remedy will entail.
Figure 1. Shallow subsurface drip irrigation is laid with a drip tape layer to a depth of 4 to 5 inches in organically grown lettuce.
By Tim Coolong
Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) has been around for many years in a variety of different iterations. Most typically, SDI refers to a permanent drip system installed fairly deep (18 inches) and is used for irrigating agronomic crops such as corn or cotton.
In many cases, vegetable crops are too shallowly rooted for a traditional SDI system, but some processing tomatoes are grown using SDI. However, a shallow SDI system, where drip tubing is buried at a depth of 4 to 6 inches (Figure 1), may be a tool that both conventional and organic vegetable growers can use.
ADVANTAGES
For organic growers, the ability to use shallow SDI offers two main advantages. The first is that crops can still be shallowly cultivated during the season without worrying about cutting drip tape. Second, having drip irrigation buried can allow for wetting of the root zone without excessive wetting of the soil surface. During dry seasons, this can reduce weed pressure (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Acorn squash is grown with shallow subsurface drip irrigation (left) and surface drip (right). While this crop was grown conventionally with herbicide, notice the lack of grass weeds in the shallow subsurface drip irrigation plot compared to the surface drip. Earlier in the season, when this picture was taken, the surface drip-grown plants were slightly larger, but that difference subsided later in the season.
Studies have also reported an increase in rooting depth and fertilizer use efficiency with shallow SDI. Many companies make drip tubing layers. University of Georgia (UGA) research has even used bed shapers/plastic layers to form beds and lay buried drip tube without using plastic mulch. In studies conducted with shallow SDI during a single season, no difference was seen in flow rate or clogging due to roots growing into the emitters. To keep costs low, 10-mil thick drip tubing was used since researchers only planned to use it for a single season. More permanent SDI systems use much thicker walled tubing.
LIMITATIONS
While shallow SDI can be a good tool for helping organic growers reduce weed pressure and improve cultivation, there are some potential limitations. UGA studies found that when comparing shallow SDI to surface drip, transplants with smaller (i.e., shallower) root balls initially grew quicker when planted into surface drip plots — particularly when weather conditions were dry and hot — promoting stress.
Many of the studies were conducted on loamy soils. It is likely that the lack of capillary movement of moisture on sandy soils may limit the use of shallow SDI in those situations. Further, the shallow SDI system did not wet the surface adequately to germinate seeded crops.
Lastly, although leaks were not common, rodents did chew into the buried drip tubing on occasion. Nonetheless, based on experience working with shallow SDI, it is a useful tool for organic vegetable farms.
Whiteflies are not the only insect wreaking havoc on vegetable crops this fall. According to Stormy Sparks, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension vegetable entomologist, broad mites are a problem for vegetable producers.
Sparks
“I’ve had several calls on broad mites, which are a problem primarily in peppers and eggplant,” Sparks said. “Unlike spider mites, spider mites like the middle of the summer because they like hot and dry weather, broad mites don’t like cold weather but they like it a little bit cooler and humid, which is what we have now. They tend to be a fall pest. Ten years ago, you never heard about them. But I’d say in the last three to five years, it’s almost an annual event.”
Large Host Range
According to UGA Extension, broad mites have a large host range, consisting of 60 families of plants. Along with peppers and eggplants, broad mites’ vegetable hosts include beets, beans, cucumbers, potatoes and tomatoes.
Damage is especially severe in bell peppers. The damage is caused by secretion of a plant growth regulator or toxin as the mite feeds, and extensive damage can happen at very low pest density.
“They make it look like the plant has a virus, same thing with eggplant. You get distorted growth. You get distorted fruit. It makes it unmarketable,” Sparks said.
Some acaricides provide excellent control of broad mites. Examination of plant terminals is necessary to evaluate control success. Damage can continue for two weeks after successful control.
Alabama strawberry producers enjoyed sweet success in 2020. Farmers are hoping for a repeat performance this year as planting season nears. Edgar Vinson, assistant research professor and Extension specialist in the Department of Horticulture at Auburn University, said growers target Oct. 15 date as the latest timeframe they want to have this year’s crop in the ground.
“They can certainly be planted after that date but you’re sacrificing plant size when you do that, and that’s going to affect yield,” Vinson said. “The later you plant, the less time you have to grow them to get them to that optimal size.”
Increased Interest
While strawberry production in Alabama is small compared to high-production states like Florida, it is growing with interest when you consider the number of farming operations there are in the state. In 2012, there was 74 farms on 158 acres. But that number increased 123 farms on 111 acres in 2017.
“It certainly speaks to the growing interest, the growing consumer demand for fresh Alabama grown strawberry,” Vinson said. “Agritourism is a growing industry and strawberry production is certainly a destination for a lot of people who want to be able to harvest strawberries themselves.”
It will certainly continue to grow in popularity if growers find similar success with production and marketing like they did in 2020. Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, strawberry producers capitalized on selling their crop to families who wanted to get their children out of the house.
Alabama grower Bobby Ray Holmes said demand was overwhelming. U-pick strawberry operations provided families an outlet to escape the new norm of social isolation.
“We had a really great year last year. Northern parts of the state, a lot of growers had more yield than they’ve ever had,” Vinson said. “I really think the (’21) outlook is good. You do have to consider the pandemic and where we’ll be.”
Strawberries will normally be ready for small harvest in late March and continue through mid-June.
(Washington, D.C., September 29, 2020) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced today that more than 100 million food boxes have been distributed in support of American farmers and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farmers to Families Food Box Program.
Perdue
Earlier this month, the Department announced it had entered into contracts with 50 entities for the third round of food box deliveries, which include contracts to purchase up to $1 billion authorized by President Donald J. Trump.
“It is incredible to think that in a little more than five months, this food box program has gone from an idea to a reality that has provided more than 100 million boxes of nutritious foods to people in need and along the way has helped to keep farmers and ranchers in business and allowed Americans working in our nation’s food supply chain to get back to work,” said Secretary Perdue. “I have been meeting with food banks and recipients across the country and it’s been heartening to hear all the positive feedback on how the program has saved businesses and fed Americans in need. We are now into the third round of deliveries and we’re working harder than ever to continue to build on the success of the program.”
“With 100 million Farmers to Families Food Boxes delivered, we have utilized critical funding authorized by President Trump to continue connecting our great American farmers to millions of food insecure families. I am proud of this Administration’s mission to keep our most vulnerable families fed and support American family farms in the process,” said Advisor to the President, Ivanka Trump.
You may view the Farmers to Families Food Box Program video or click on the image below to watch a highlight video of USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program in action across the United States.
As laborers return to the fields this fall in Florida, both unauthorized workers and those authorized to plant and pick crops through a guest worker visa are vulnerable to the coronavirus. In fact, an estimated 75% of Florida crop workers have at least one underlying health issue that puts them at risk of developing COVID-19 complications, new UF/IFAS research shows.
However, sources of risk for these two groups are different, according to the study.
That is largely because domestic unauthorized workers are significantly older than H-2A workers, which increases their risk of developing COVID-19 complications, said Gulcan Onel, a UF/IFAS assistant professor of food and resource economics.
Most of the members of both legal groups of workers do not speak English and have less than a high school education, Onel said.
“These findings highlight the need for accessible and culturally-minded outreach efforts to educate workers about preventive measures for COVID-19,” she said.
One example of UF/IFAS outreach is based at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee. Faculty and experts there are hosting a series of workshops in September and October to help train farm supervisors to keep their employees as safe as possible from COVID.
For her study, Onel used three different sources of data, including a citrus harvester’s survey her team conducted in several Florida counties. Onel also synthesized existing health and employment data from federal sources. She then compared the demographic differences of H-2A workers with those of unauthorized agricultural workers to draw conclusions about COVID-19 risks among these farm workers.
Onel
The federal H-2A guest workers program provides legal, temporary nonimmigrant visa classification to foreign-born workers, where able, willing and qualified U.S. workers are not available. That work typically lasts no longer than one year.
Unauthorized workers are foreign-born workers who lack proper, legal documentation to work in the United States. Data show that unauthorized domestic workers, on average, have been in the United States for more than a decade.
In addition to legal status groups, workers’ susceptibility to the virus varies by location across Florida counties, the study shows.
Onel and her colleagues saw a high correlation between counties with the most COVID-19 cases and counties with the most agricultural workers. Among counties with the highest crop worker populations, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Hillsborough counties had the most COVID-19 cases. They were followed by Broward, Collier, Lee, Manatee and Polk counties.
Among other findings:
H-2A workers live in employer-provided and controlled housing, which may make it easier to take measures to help mitigate COVID-19 for them, compared to domestic workers. On the other hand, H-2A workers spend more time traveling to their work sites than domestic workers, which may make transportation a higher risk factor for this group of workers.
Preventing or mitigating COVID-19 among unauthorized workers gets more complicated by today’s immigration environment. Contact tracing and encouraging workers to seek testing and/or care may be difficult because unauthorized domestic crop workers fear they will be deported. Ensuring privacy of workers and their contacts will be vital for effective mitigation strategies.
H-2A workers send more of their earnings back home compared to domestic unauthorized workers; therefore, H-2A workers likely have stronger ties with family in their countries of origin, the survey found.
“This is important with the recent spikes in COVID-19 cases in Mexico and South America; higher remittances (back home) indicate that H-2A workers — who are mostly married and have minor-aged children – likely have stronger ties to their country of origin,” Onel said. “They might be more reluctant to return to U.S. farms amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, existing workers in the fields may continue working, even when they are sick, to keep up with their support for family back home. Piece-rate payment schemes may further encourage risk-taking behavior among workers, posing a challenge for containing outbreaks.”
While the study’s findings provide insights into COVID-19 risks for Florida crop workers, predicting when and a COVID-19 outbreak will occur is difficult and no trivial matter, Onel said.
“This type of prediction requires tracking of data over time,” Onel said. “The county-level maps in our article — which layer farm worker populations and COVID-19 cases — can easily be updated periodically for more up-to-date information on higher-risk agricultural counties.”
