Clewiston, FL— Judy Sanchez, Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at U.S. Sugar, issued the following statement on the company’s motion to dismiss filed in response to a baseless lawsuit brought against sugarcane farmers:
Sanchez
“Publicly available air quality monitoring data maintained by the state of Florida has shown, and continues to show, that the Glades communities have some of the best air quality in the state. This is a science-based fact, supported by actual data. The hypothetical, preliminary model included in the Plaintiffs’ second amended complaint is a nonsensical misrepresentation of reality and is a disservice to our community. This is unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected, given the historical playbook of those who willingly ignore data and use baseless claims to attack our communities.
“As farmers, we rely on proven science and data to inform our daily growing and harvesting decisions. Just as important, we live in this community and take very serious our responsibility to be good neighbors and stewards of our environment. That is a commitment we will never waver on or compromise.”
UGA Extension photo/Stubby root-knot nematode on onion plants in 2017.
The time is now to soil sample for nematodes, says Pablo Navia, Adama Technical Development Leader for East Region.
“This is the best time since populations of nematodes are really high right now in the soil. There’s still some roots that they are feeding on. This is the best time to sample,” Navia said. “It’s a good way to know what enemy you’re dealing with next season.”
Navia said growers need to coordinate with the Extension agents in their county to take samples and arrange to take their samples to the appropriate lab.
“Each state’s Extension agent will know where to send the sample. Each university will have their lab and you can send the sample to their lab,” Navia said.
Navia recommends that producers take between 4 and 8 samples in a field, which will provide growers a good representation of the entire field.
There are different types of nematodes that impact vegetables, with root-knot nematodes being the most widespread and can cause the most damage. Nematodes are especially troubling because of the wide range of potential hosts. In addition to vegetables, nematodes cause problems in cotton, peanut and tobacco plants.
“It’s one of the most damaging pests out there,” Navia said. “It’s as important as a soil-borne disease or a foliar disease. There are many diseases that can affect a particular crop. But nematodes will make everything worse. If you have nematodes, then you have high chances of losing your crop.”
Soil sampling better prepares growers for the following season and will help them know if numbers are beyond threshold and if further action is warranted.
“If you have root-knot nematode and you find one nematode in your sample, that means you may be in trouble next season. Nematodes, like stubby root for example, the threshold is 200. Depending on the crop, like the citrus nematode, the threshold is 1,000,” Navia said. “It really depends on the species.”
Due to the cancellation of the 2020 Sunbelt Ag Expo show, plans for the selection of the 2020 Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Ag Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year Winner have been amended. Originally, this year’s judging tour was planned for August 10-14. Due to current health concerns, the tour has been postponed indefinitely. 2020 State Winners will be recognized, and an overall winner will be announced at the 2021 Sunbelt Ag Expo. A new class of state winners will not be selected in 2021.
“We have considered virtual options for the judging tour and the awards ceremony, but the Farmer of the Year program is not a virtual event. The program is about so much more – the interaction amongst our 10 state winners, and the 265 winners that have been awarded over the last 30 years cannot be replaced. To have a Farmer of the Year class not be able to experience the in-person judging tour, the trip to South Georgia and the Sunbelt Ag Expo is not an option in our book,” said Chip Blalock, Sunbelt Ag Expo Executive Director.
The Sunbelt Ag Expo looks forward to welcoming visitors and the 2020 Farmer of the year class in 2021 as it showcases the latest in farming technology, October 19-21. Visit www.sunbeltexpo.com for more information.
Tallahassee, Fla. – Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried wrote to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Tuesday, once again asking the USDA to expand eligibility for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) to include additional agricultural commodities.
Nikki Fried Florida Agriculture Commissioner
On July 9, the USDA announced expanded CFAP eligibility that included many impacted Florida crops, but aquaculture and horticulture commodities were not included at that time. With the August 28 CFAP enrollment deadline approaching, Commissioner Fried again asked Secretary Perdue to include aquaculturists and nursery growers in CFAP, and to extend the enrollment deadline for these additional industries.
Florida ranks second in the U.S. for nursery crops, valued at $574 million, and is among the top U.S. states for seafood production at $730 million in value, with over 400 commercial aquaculture operations. Both industries faced significant losses due to COVID-19 market disruptions.
Commissioner Fried has been a vocal advocate of USDA assistance during COVID-19 for Florida’s agriculture industry, which has suffered over $522 million in losses since March for seasonal crops alone. In March, she asked the USDA to speed up billions in assistance to farmers and purchase additional crops through federal programs, and has encouraged producers to sign up for USDA purchase programs including CFAP.
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Farmers impacted by COVID-19 and hoping to take advantage of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program have a little more than three weeks left before the Aug. 28 deadline. That is when the United States Department of Agriculture will stop accepting applications from producers.
Runge
Through CFAP, USDA made available $16 billion in financial assistance to producers of agricultural commodities who have suffered a 5%-or-greater price decline due to COVID-19 and face additional significant marketing costs as a result of lower demand, surplus production, and disruptions to shipping patterns and the orderly marketing of commodities.
Max Runge, Extension specialist in agricultural economics at Auburn University, believes CFAP has been a success for growers.
“Overall, I think it has been a success. It provided some much-needed funding and hopefully some cash flow for some producers that needed it. It wasn’t a perfect program. I know some people feel like they were left out or they didn’t get enough, or it should have been done differently. But overall, I think it was very helpful to our producers.”
In mid-July, the USDA, amended the original crop list covered under CFAP to include additional commodities, including the addition of blueberries to Category 1.
Two hearings on Aug. 13 and Aug. 20 with the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office will provide growers from Georgia and Florida the chance to voice their concerns over unfair trade.
Rabinowitz
However, one economist is skeptical about the potential impact these hearings will have.
Adam Rabinowitz, Associate Professor and Extension Economist at Auburn University, points to the lack of coverage for specialty crop growers in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) for his lack of confidence in the upcoming hearings.
“It’s certainly important for the farmers to be able to voice their concerns about some of the trade issues that are at hand. It’s going to be interesting to see I guess, to what extent there is actual impact from that,” Rabinowitz said. “When you talk about some of the challenges with trade in the Southeast, Mexico is a big issue there. The fact that nothing was addressed for this region in the USMCA, I’m not sure what the opportunities will be to resolve some of those outstanding issues.”
The hearings will take place virtually. They will provide the U.S. Department of Commerce and Trump Administration an opportunity to hear from seasonal produce growers on the urgent need for federal action on unfair foreign trade.
Even more so this year, Mexican imports into the U.S. were troubling for growers who were struggling to sell produce during the coronavirus pandemic. Florida farmers Sam Accursio said Mexico imported 2 to 3 million pounds of squash per day while he struggled to find buyers, if any at all. Florida farmer Ryan Atwood said the influx of blueberry imports from Mexico contributed to a sharp decline in market prices this year.
“Certainly, the blueberries are a concern, cucumbers and bellpeppers as well. We’ve seen some data there, and of course, tomatoes, even with the tomato suspension agreement; certainly is highly competitive coming out of Mexico,” Rabinowitz said. “Those I’d say are the commodities we’ve seen evidence of that have been impacted pretty significantly. But some of my hesitation in being optimistic comes from the challenge of why nothing was addressed in USMCA.”
Additional information on USTR field hearing dates, deadlines, and submission instructions can be found in the Federal Register notice.
July 31, 2020, Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Senate has passed a resolution designating July 2020 as National Blueberry Month, recognizing the contributions of the U.S. blueberry industry and acknowledging that purchasing blueberries supports farmers, jobs and the economy. The resolution echoes a proclamation from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue in March.
Senate resolution (S.Res. 656) was sponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and co-sponsored by senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), David Perdue (R-GA) Angus King Jr. (I-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Kelly Loeffler (R-GA). The resolution recognizes that highbush and wild blueberries have an annual economic impact of $4,700,000,000; a harvested area estimated at over 140,000 acres; are produced in 48 states by more than 15,000 farms and their families; and that highbush blueberry production in the U.S. has continually increased, with particular growth in the past two decades, to reach a harvest of 700,000,000 pounds in 2019. It also points to the research-based health benefits of blueberries.
NABC members met with lawmakers in Washington, D.C., in March.
Last spring, members of the North American Blueberry Council (NABC) traveled to Washington, D.C., to encourage lawmakers to support blueberries by signing onto the resolution that reflects the incredible growth, value and impact the blueberry industry has on the economy and communities.
Over 130 participants met with their senators and representatives to share NABC’s policy priorities and help raise the profile of the health benefits blueberries provide, as well as the economic impact blueberry growers have in their communities and the U.S. economy. These efforts influenced the Senate resolution passed yesterday .
“Blueberry growers and others connected to the industry are very appreciative to have their life’s work recognized and celebrated during National Blueberry Month,” said NABC Chair Ken Patterson. “July continues to be our peak season, and this resolution helps draw attention to the important economic and health benefits of blueberries. We’re grateful to the senators who are helping us highlight our industry with this timely resolution.”
Cosmetic damage of western flower thrips on tomatoes by (A) oviposition and (B) feeding (flecking).
By Xavier Martini and Joe Funderburk
Thrips are important pests of tomatoes for two reasons. First, they damage fruit directly by egg-laying or feeding (Figure 1). More importantly, some species also vector tospoviruses that include tomato spotted wilt virus, groundnut ringspot virus and tomato chlorotic spot virus.
These tospoviruses can considerably decrease the crop yield if thrips are not controlled. Thrips acquire tospoviruses during the nymphal stage only, but once acquired they can transmit them to plants throughout their lifetime.
IMPORTANCE OF IDENTIFICATION Two thrips species are of concern to tomatoes in the Southeast: western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) and tomato thrips (Frankliniella schultzei). Both are particularly good vectors of tospoviruses.
However, other thrips with less economic impact on tomato, such as Florida flower thrips (Frankliniella bispinosa) and flower thrips (Frankliniella tritici),are often found in tomato flowers, sometimes at a higher density than the more damaging thrips. In fact, F. bispinosa and F. tritici compete against the other thrips species that transmit tospoviruses and therefore prevent the spread of tospovirus-associated diseases.
If insecticides are applied when these undamaging species are dominant, the insecticides will eliminate them, and they will be replaced by the invasive species, such as western flower thrips. Therefore, it is of critical importance to identify thrips before applying an insecticide to tomato crops.
Thrips identification is based on specific characteristics only visible under a microscope. For most growers, the best method is to collect tomato flowers in ethanol and send them to a scout, an Extension agent or a state specialist for identification.
CHEMICAL TREATMENTS Different insecticide treatments are available against thrips. Neonicotinoids applied at transplant might be an option in areas where tospovirus-related diseases occur every year. Spinosyns offer some of the best control for thrips. They have the advantage of being compatible with biological control and sometimes with organic agriculture.
It is important to rotate insecticide modes of action during a season to avoid the development of insecticide resistance in thrips populations. The mode of action of each insecticide can be found on the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee website (https://irac-online.org/).
NON-INSECTICIDAL CONTROLS Because identification of thrips is highly recommended before applying an insecticide, it is better to manage thrips using non-insecticidal methods. The addition of companion flowers (such as bidens or coreopsis) on the border of tomato crops increases the density of natural enemies.
Orius species minute pirate bugs are very efficient thrips predators, and they use pollen in companion flowers as a nutritional supplement. Under field conditions, about one predator to 180 thrips is enough for suppression of thrips populations. When the ratio reaches about one predator to 40 thrips, thrips populations are controlled.
It is important that the companion plants flower prior to the tomato crops to ensure the buildup of the natural enemies’ population before they are needed to control the thrips population. Natural enemies are available commercially for thrips control in greenhouses and other protected-culture systems.
The use of UV-reflective mulch instead of the regular black or white mulch is also recommended. UV-reflective mulch disrupts thrips’ host location and reduces significantly the settling of thrips on tomatoes. UV-reflecting mulch is particularly efficient at the earlier stages of the tomato crop (Figure 2). However, as the crop grows, leaves will cover the UV-mulch, and the benefits of the UV-mulch will decrease. At this point, kaolin clay can be applied on tomato crops. Kaolin clay has a repellent effect on thrips and works better on expended leaves.
The combined use of minute pirate bugs, companion plants, UV-reflective mulch and kaolin (Figure 3) has been shown to be highly effective in controlling thrips in field trials conducted at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) North Florida Research and Education Center. If the timing of these different elements is correct, the need for insecticide to control thrips will be sporadic.
Xavier Martini (xmartini@ufl.edu) is an assistant professor and Joe Funderburk is a professor, both at the UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center in Quincy.
Photo courtesy of Treadwell Farms/Shows hemp plants ready to be planted.
One of the first commercial hemp growers in Florida believes the industry is primed for growth in the Sunshine State.
“All of the skills and experience and ability to make what you need, to observe and adapt to your environment, those are crucial skills to being successful with the crop and Florida farmers are going to know how to grow plants in Florida and crops in Florida better than anybody else,” said Jammie Treadwell, co-owner of Treadwell Farms in Eustis, Florida. “We always encourage farmers that, they know more than they think they do and they’re going to come with new and innovative ideas for the hemp industry that aren’t new and innovative to them.”
Photo courtesy of Treadwell Farms/Shows co-owner Jammie Treadwell standing in front of a hemp field.
Treadwell said the first of her greenhouse-grown seedlings went into the field last week, more than a year after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the State Hemp Program into law. The signing in 2019 allowed the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to regulate a state hemp program.
Since Treadwell Farms produces hemp in a greenhouse setting, Jammie is confident they will be able to produce a crop in three, if not, four different growing cycles over the course of the year. Supplemental lighting allows hemp to grow during the winter months.
“We’re starting small this first season, just because we want to make sure everybody has a good season and that they have their infrastructure dialed in, that they can get a handle on things before they expand. For us, we are approved for just over 4 acres. I know compared to some farmers out there that’s pretty small, but we can go multiple cycles,” Treadwell said.
Working with Other Farmers
Her farm also assists other growers in the Central Florida region with germinating seeds and rooted cuttings. The healthier the plant is going into the ground and more acclimated it is to the environment equates to a better chance for success.
Another reason for optimism about the crop’s future in Florida is the constant flow of information being shared among farmers who want to see hemp sustainable.
“We’re working with other farmers in our community as each one of them has something to add. We’re working with large vegetable growers. They have ideas that they’re sharing with us. We’re working with other nursery men and women. We’re working with citrus growers,” Treadwell said. “My family has a peach grove, we have citrus. All of those crops have ideas and skills and techniques that can be applied to this new crop. One of the things we’ve really been trying to create is a community among these different farmers to share ideas. That’s the great thing about Ag, most people are willing to help each other.”
Initial design of the low-cost robotic sprayer for precision weed control in vegetable production: main components of the smart sprayer (A) and self-reconfigured and self-adjustable design for easy field deployment in a variety of vegetable fields (B).
By Yiannis Ampatzidis
Vegetable growers face a variety of challenges, including pest and diseases, labor shortages and climate change. How can new advancements in technology help growers address these challenges? Can technology improve crops, reduce production costs and protect the environment? How can technological innovations be incorporated into traditional farming to improve production practices?
In the last few decades, several “smart” technologies have been developed for vegetable production and processing. However, growers are confronted with a variety of challenges when considering adopting new technology or adjusting existing technology. Growers are being offered solutions that might not work in their specific production system or might not be economically feasible. This article presents examples of state-of-the-art technologies that may be used in vegetable production today or in the near future!
SIMPLIFY SURVEYING Field surveys for disease/pest scouting and to assess plant stress are expensive, labor intensive and time consuming. Since labor shortage is a major issue in vegetable production, small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with various sensors (remote sensing) can simplify surveying procedures, reduce the labor cost, decrease data collection time and produce critical and practical information.
For example, recently UAVs and remote sensing have allowed growers to constantly monitor crop health status, estimate plant water needs and even detect diseases. The precision agriculture team (@PrecAgSWFREC) at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Southwest Florida Research and Education Center (SWFREC) developed a cloud-based application called Agroview (http://agroview.farm/login.php).
Agroview can process, analyze and visualize data collected from UAVs and other aerial platforms (e.g., small planes and satellites). This technology utilizes machine learning (an application of artificial intelligence) to detect single plants and assess plant size and stress. Agroview and UAVs were initially used to create plant inventories in citrus (see a video demonstration at https://twitter.com/i/status/1202671242647490560) and to detect specific diseases in vegetables with high accuracy. Early detection and eradication of infected plants is crucial to controlling disease and pest spread throughout the field.
SMART SPRAYERS
Most conventional sprayers apply agrochemicals uniformly, even though distribution of pests and diseases is typically patchy, resulting in waste of valuable compounds, increased costs, crop damage risk, pest resistance to chemicals, environmental pollution and contamination of products. Contamination can be related to run-off after application, discharge from drainage and off-target deposition of spray due to wind (spray drift). This contamination can be significantly reduced through optimization of spraying technology.
Spray drift of agrochemicals occurs during every application and accounts for a loss of up to 50 percent of the agrochemical used. Minimizing the negative impacts of agrochemicals (and spraying technologies) is a major global challenge.
More than 90 percent of the acreage of crops in the United States are being sprayed with herbicides. It is estimated that $26 billion is spent on herbicides (more than 3 billion pounds) each year. This overuse of chemicals creates herbicide-tolerant weeds and approximately 250 known species of resistant weeds.
In recent decades, several smart technologies have been developed for pest detection and for optimizing spraying applications. These new spraying technologies have shown an important improvement in efficiency and safety by adopting the latest advances in electronics, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.
One example is the See & Spray machine developed by Blue River Technology (www.bluerivertechnology.com) for weed control in arable crops. See & Spray utilizes computer vision and AI to detect and identify individual plants (such as cotton) and weeds and then applies herbicide only to the weeds. See how this technology works at https://youtu.be/gszOT6NQbF8. This machine can reduce the required quantity of herbicide by more than 90 percent compared to traditional broadcast sprayers. However, this technology was designed for arable crops and might not be a cost-effective solution for specific vegetable production systems.
Another low-cost smart sprayer has been designed and developed by the UF/IFAS team for precision weed management in vegetables. In the initial evaluation experiments, smart technology was able to accurately detect and distinguish weeds from crops and apply chemicals only on specific weed(s), thus avoiding crops and areas without weeds. See a video demonstration of this technology at https://twitter.com/i/status/1045013127593644032.
Recently, the precision ag team, in collaboration with Abhisesh Silwal (Carnegie Mellon University) and Panos Pardalos (UF), received funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Research Foundation (award #2020-67021-30761) to improve and fully automate this smart sprayer. This novel robotic sprayer (or fleet of sprayers) was designed to be self-reconfigured and self-adjustable for easy field deployment (Figure 1). With this design, the robot can reconfigure itself (Figure 1b) to manage weeds in a variety of vegetable fields (e.g., with different row spacing and raised bed sizes).
ROBOTIC HARVESTING
Fresh-market vegetables are quickly perishable and virtually 100 percent are hand-harvested. Vegetable growers face increasing shortages of laborers, which in turn, drive up harvest costs. Mechanical and robotic harvesting systems for vegetable growers could simultaneously decrease their dependence on manual labor, reduce harvesting costs and improve overall competitiveness in the market.
In one example, Harvest Croo Robotics, a Florida company, is developing a robotic harvester for strawberries that does not require growers to radically change the way they currently grow crops. This technology successfully harvested berries during the 2019–20 season. It could address the labor shortage problem and increase grower profit.
Yiannis Ampatzidis (i.ampatzidis@ufl.edu) is an assistant professor at the UF/IFAS SWFREC in Immokalee, Florida.
