By Jayanta Bhattacharya

Agartala, India , Madhuti Debbarma of Tripura’s Khowai district (India) planted rubber saplings she got free of cost but as the benefits of the plantation will come after seven long years, she was worried about how to make both ends meet during the period.

Now, Debbarma, a resident of Bara Maidan area, has found the answer – intercropping. It is the practice of growing two or more different types of crops on the same agricultural field together.

The 30-year-old woman and her husband now plant cash crops like pineapple along with vegetables such as chilli and cucumber in between the rows of rubber saplings and are generating some additional income.

“The officers of Rubber Board gave us the idea of intercropping. We know that the benefits of rubber plantation will reach us only after seven years. So, we are cultivating vegetables and other cash crops and being able to earn some money for sustenance,” Debbarma said.

The couple plants rubber saplings, provided to them for free by the Rubber Board, and grows other crops on the slopes of hillocks in the Baramura hill range.

“We are trying to promote intercropping among the beneficiaries. The practice of intercropping is rare in Tripura. Hence cash crops like pineapple and coffee along with vegetables like chilli and cucumber etc are encouraged.

“Sugandha Mantri, a plant used in aromatherapy, is also cultivated through intercropping in Tripura. Approximately 5,000 rubber beneficiaries are presently involved in intercropping,” Rubber Board Joint Commissioner Shylaja K said.

She said that people of around 150 colonies in Khowai are also engaged in beekeeping along with the rubber plantation business, which has helped in improving their economic condition.

Shylaja said, “The practice of intercropping and beekeeping in rubber garden is relatively a new concept in the state, though it prevails in Kerala and other countries such as Thailand or Malaysia.”

However, intercropping is helpful only for some time as, when the rubber plant becomes mature, its canopy becomes very thick and sunlight cannot reach the ground, affecting the growth of smaller plants.

Tripura is the second rubber capital of the country after Kerala. The government of the northeastern state initially allowed 1,000,000 hectares of land to be brought under rubber plantation. Later, in view of the increasing demand, an additional 30,000 hectares was allowed for growing rubber.

However, at present 89,000 hectares of land are under rubber cultivation in the state, Shylaja said.

The Automotive Tire manufacturers Association (ATMA), a conglomeration of several tire producers, provides funds to the board to supply rubber saplings to the beneficiaries free of cost, she said.

The intention is to procure natural rubber from inside the country and not depend on imported rubber.     Besides ATMA, other agencies such as Tripura Forest Development Plantation Corporation Ltd and Tripura Rehabilitation Plantation Corporation Ltd help in funding the process of breeding and maintenance of the crop.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Tripura Intercropping answer to challenge of long gestation period of rubber plantation – The Week

USDA expands assistance to cover feed transportation costs

From USDA Farm Service Agency

WASHINGTON — In response to the severe drought conditions in the West and Great Plains, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its plans to help cover the cost of transporting feed for livestock that rely on grazing. USDA is updating the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees and Farm-raised Fish Program — ELAP — to immediately cover feed transportation costs for drought impacted ranchers. USDA’s Farm Service Agency will provide more details and tools to help ranchers get ready to apply at their local USDA Service Center later this month at http://fsa.usda.gov/elap .

“USDA is currently determining how our disaster assistance programs can best help alleviate the significant economic, physical and emotional strain agriculture producers are experiencing due to drought conditions,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “The duration and intensity of current drought conditions are merciless, and the impacts of this summer’s drought will be felt by producers for months to come. Today’s announcement is to provide relief as ranchers make fall and winter herd management decisions.”

ELAP provides financial assistance to eligible producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish for losses due to disease, certain adverse weather events or loss conditions as determined by the secretary of agriculture.

ELAP already covers the cost of hauling water during drought, and this change will expand the program beginning in 2021 to cover feed transportation costs where grazing and hay resources have been depleted. This includes places where:

• Drought intensity is D2 for eight consecutive weeks as indicated by the U.S. Drought Monitor;
• Drought intensity is D3 or greater; or
• USDA has determined a shortage of local or regional feed availability.

Cost share assistance will also be made available to cover eligible cost of treating hay or feed to prevent the spread of invasive pests like fire ants.

Under the revised policy for feed transportation cost assistance, eligible ranchers will be reimbursed 60% of feed transportation costs above what would have been incurred in a normal year. Producers qualifying as underserved (socially disadvantaged, limited resource, beginning or military veteran) will be reimbursed for 90% of the feed transportation cost above what would have been incurred in a normal year.

A national cost formula, as established by USDA, will be used to determine reimbursement costs which will not include the first 25 miles and distances exceeding 1,000 transportation miles. The calculation will also exclude the normal cost to transport hay or feed if the producer normally purchases some feed.  For 2021, the initial cost formula of $6.60 per mile will be used (before the percentage is applied), but may be adjusted on a state or regional basis.

To be eligible for ELAP assistance, livestock must be intended for grazing and producers must have incurred feed transportation costs on or after Jan. 1, 2021. Although producers will self-certify losses and expenses to FSA, producers are encouraged to maintain good records and retain receipts and related documentation in the event these documents are requested for review by the local FSA County Committee. The deadline to file an application for payment for the 2021 program year is Jan. 31, 2022.

To read the entire article go to; USDA expands assistance to cover feed transportation costs – Havre Daily News

Scholarship drives farmer planting of pollinator habitat on-farm

MODESTO, Calif., Feb. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Honey bees and native pollinators will find more forage in California’s almond orchards this spring as a result of the almond community’s five-point Pollinator Protection Plan. Announced one year ago by the Almond Board of California (ABC), this plan expands the industry’s long-standing commitment to researching, protecting and improving bee health.

One of the five tenets of the Pollinator Protection Plan – increasing floral diversity on farm – led the Almond Board to create and fund the Bee+ Scholarship program which provides grants to farmers to help offset the cost of planting forage and habitat in and around their orchards. This effort led to 135 new almond farmers joining Project Apis m.’s Seeds for Bees program and added pollinator habitat to 14,778 acres of almond orchards, a 22% increase to the footprint of almond pollinator habitat in the last year.

Another component of the Bee+ Scholarship encouraged farmer participation in Pollinator Partnership’s Bee Friendly Farming program. To date, 54,202 acres of almonds have been Bee Friendly certified, meaning farmers are actively protecting pollinator populations by implementing positive, incremental changes on-farm.

“As a partnership designed by nature, almonds take our responsibility for honey bee health seriously,” said Josette Lewis, PhD, chief scientific officer for the Almond Board. “Through these efforts, we diversify and expand the nutritious forage that honey bees find in almond orchards each year while extending our efforts outside the orchard to benefit native pollinators too.”

Ben King, a fourth-generation almond farmer based in Colusa, Calif., has planted cover crops on his farm for more than five years. “It comes out of a love for bees,” King said, “and recognizing the importance of taking what nature gives you and acting as a steward.”

As almonds are the first commercial crop in North America to bloom, King notes that “almond orchards are the first stop for the honey bees, and the trees’ pollen is their first major source of nutrition. As a result, hives regularly leave stronger as they move on to pollinate other crops across the country, an effect amplified with the addition of more floral biodiversity via cover crops.”

By investing in blooming cover crops, King has not only seen a benefit to pollinators, but also to the overall health of his orchard, especially as it relates to soil. “Soil is the foundation of farming and by planting pollinator habitat you are creating a healthy ecosystem,” notes King. Cover crops also provide positive impacts on carbon sequestration and can improve the amount of moisture that can be stored in the soil.

“It’s clear this is the path forward,” King said. “But there is a long-term investment associated with making these changes. Luckily, the Almond Board is progressive and supports these initiatives on farmers’ behalf.”

In 2020, ABC invested more than $750,000 in activities that directly benefit pollinator health. This included $300,000 in incentives and technical assistance to expand pollinator forage and habitat on-farm. ABC will continue to invest in providing tools and options to farmers to continue expanding pollinator habitat in 2021.

Bolstering these efforts, ABC and the University of California, Davis have partnered to publish a cover crop management guide for almond farmers. The culmination of years of research on the management and benefits of cover crops for both pollinators and soil health, this practical guide will be released this summer and drive adoption of a practice which promotes biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

This work builds upon a longstanding commitment to pollinator health. Since 1995, the California almond community has supported 126 research projects – more than any other crop group – to address the five major factors impacting honey bee health, including varroa mites, pest and disease management, lack of genetic diversity, pesticide exposure, and access to forage and nutrition.

To learn more about the mutually beneficial relationship between almonds and bees, along with the California almond community’s commitment to protecting pollinators, visit Almonds.com/Bees.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/almond-board-provides-seed-grants-to-support-pollinator-health-and-biodiversity-301224493.html

As insects and other food sources become scarce in the fall, you may notice more aggressive yellow jackets while you enjoy your lunch outside. (Photo Courtesy of Lake Erie Nature & Science Center)

Guest columnist Christine Barnett is the wildlife specialist and resident beekeeper at Lake Erie Nature & Science Center.

Every fall, our outdoor hangouts are interrupted by black-and-yellow insects. Bees are often mistakenly blamed, when it’s really yellow jackets that are ruining the fun. Despite their many similarities, bees and yellow jackets are completely different insects.

Let’s start with their diets. Bees eat a plant-based diet, feeding on nectar and pollen from a variety of flowering plants. Yellow jackets, on the other hand, consume insect protein in addition to fruits, sugars and other foods. As insects and other food sources become scarce in the fall, you may notice more aggressive yellow jackets while you enjoy your lunch outside.

The physical characteristics of bees and yellow jackets are quite different, too. Yellow jackets are more aggressive than bees when protecting their colonies. In fact, most people who say they have been stung by a bee were actually stung by a yellow jacket or other wasp.

Unlike honey bees, who lose their barbed stingers when they sting, yellow jackets’ stingers are smoother and less likely to get caught in your skin. The venom of yellow jackets is also more potent and painful.

While yellow jackets are seen throughout summer, they become a bigger pest in the fall due to their life cycle. In spring, a young queen will emerge from her overwintering den in a rotten log or other small space to build a new colony. She will choose a nesting site that is warm and dry, such as an old rodent den, sometimes underground, under old leaf piles or even in a crack in your home’s siding.

She will lay a few eggs and care for them by killing and bringing back other insects for the young to eat. Once the larvae grow into adult workers, the queen will remain in the nest laying eggs while her adult children scavenge food for the new babies. The colony will continue to grow all summer and by fall can have 1,000 to 3,000 or more workers living inside.

With a higher population of yellow jackets in the colony, the colony itself needs more food, resulting in more desperate and aggressive yellow jacket workers.

In the fall, the queen will lay eggs that will eventually become male yellow jackets and next year’s young queens. The males and new queens will emerge and mate with yellow jackets from different colonies.

After mating, the young queen will find a den to overwinter alone. As temperatures drop, the more food and energy is needed to survive, further increasing the other yellow jackets’ aggression.

Once the temperature drops too low, the remaining workers and males will die and the colony will not survive the winter.

So, if yellow jackets become a problem for you this fall, know that cooler temperatures are on the way.

Questions about bees, wasps or other wildlife? Contact wildlife specialist and resident beekeeper Christine Barnett at Lake Erie Nature & Science Center by calling 440-871-2900 or emailing wildlife@lensc.org.

https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2020/10/dont-blame-the-bees-christine-barnett.html

________________________________________________________________________________

The arrival of the truck with beehives at Bittner-Singer Orchards on May 3.

Our farm was the first stop for the UPS truck one day earlier this month. Now, that may not seem to be earth shattering news, but there was a specific reason we were first: Bumblebees.

Yes, every spring Bittner-Singer Orchards gets bumblebees delivered by UPS and the delivery driver feels better if he gets the boxes that are making the buzzing sounds off the truck ASAP.

And so starts our pollination season.

The last few years, we have done surveys of native pollinators that have been working in our orchards during bloom. We discovered a plethora of mining bees, sweat bees and wild bumblebees. So many, in fact, that we aren’t certain we need to add more bees to the mix each year. However, to feel confident that the fruit will be pollinated at the proper time, we do bring bees in.

The first kind of bee, as I mentioned above, are bumblebees. They arrive in hives that we set out in the orchard. We then open the trap door and let them do their thing. They fly in and out of the hive even on cool, cloudy and rainy days.

We also rent honeybee hives. These hives travel up and down the east coast depending on what is in season. If you are on a highway and see a flatbed truck piled with what look like old, weathered wood boxes and covered with a net, those could be honey bees.

Our bees come from Florida, stay in our cherry trees for a week, then move on to our apple orchards. When the apple bloom is done, they are transported to Maine to help pollinate the wild blueberries.

We set these hives in groups of four to eight around the orchards. If we do have to move them, we wait until early morning when it is cool. The bees are usually here for three weeks.

One of the biggest questions is why do we need pollinators? Some fruit trees can self-pollinate and set a crop. Other fruits, such as apples and sweet cherries, need cross pollination. Bringing in bees helps ensure that.

Another challenge with apples is that if they aren’t pollinated properly, the tree will get into an every other year pattern. This year we have a huge crop, next year we have nothing. We want to avoid that happening.

To end with a fun fact about bees on our farm: Between what we bring in, purchase and have found when we observe the local pollinators there are more than 1 million bees working in our orchards.

So bee observant when you beelieve you’’ve encountered these buzzing workers!

Margo Sue Bittner, a.k.a. Aggie Culture, has been involved in Niagara County agriculture for 40 years. She’s had experience in dairy farming, fruit production and wine agri-tourism. Ask her any question about local agriculture and if she doesn’t know the answer herself, she knows who to get it from.

https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/outstanding-in-my-field-the-buzz-about-pollination/article_2e3f27c5-9a07-557b-91e1-a6ab27eb4e36.html

________________________________________________________________________________

Recently, I received information on a “Lawns to Legumes” class — offered in Rochester-for free! — on how to transform your lawn into a more bee-friendly one. As I am a hobby bee-keeper and always wanting to learn more about bees, I signed up for the class! Whether it explored honey bees or bees native to Minnesota, I was eager to learn from them as both species are important to our world.

While waiting for the class to begin, I paged through some of the many handouts available outside the classroom, finding that we’d be focusing on bees native to our region, more specifically the Rusty Patched bumblebee, Minnesota’s state bee! Through a joint effort, the

Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR), Metro Blooms, and the non-profit Blue Thumb were able to offer this class. Though this was the only the second time it was presented, the sponsoring organizations expect to present 30 more classes over the next 3 years to create habitat for our native bees.

When we think of bees pollinating plants, quite often our mind goes directly to honey bees and the challenges they face with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). In doing this, we don’t consider the numerous other pollinators important to our distinctive regions, such as our Rusty Patched bumblebee, which the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) lists as an endangered species.

With a single queen and female workers; the Rusty Patched bumblebee lives in colonies in the ground. Producing new queens and males in late summer, the colony necessitates a late-season food source. You can identify the bumblebee by it’s black head, and the males and workers bear a rusty patch on their backs, inspiring its name. If ever in doubt about any bee in your yard, there are several websites and apps available, including bumblebeewatch.org, that allow you to upload a photo directly from your smartphone and will then identify the bee for you.

As explained to me in the “Lawns to Legumes” class, the Rusty Patched bumblebee could be found throughout the entire state of Minnesota.

However, as we transformed grasslands into roads, cities, and farmland, we changed their habitat. Diseases and pesticides also threaten the bumblebee; these factors, in addition to a few others, contribute to the decline of all our native bees.

What can I do as a homeowner to help the bee population? I was relieved to hear the class organizers were not asking me to till up my entire yard and plant native-blooming gardens: that is not a very practical approach. But, they did encourage us to plant small plots, about 10 square feet in size, as a stopping garden for bees. Buzzing about, bees expend a great amount of energy flying long distances between food sources. If small stopping gardens were planted, it would provide an opportunity for bees to rest and forage in your garden until it moves onto another food source. Thus, more food and habitat creates healthier bees.

Well planned native gardens-with taller plants to the middle or back of the garden and shorter plants to the front and outer edges-have more visual appeal than a wild mixture of plants, which often look more like weed patches. Trust me, I’ve made this mistake in my own yard! Come spring, I’ll be digging and rearranging my plants to create a more appealing garden. Early-spring bloomers, such as columbine, wild ginger, and wild geranium, serve as a great food source for the bees that emerge from the ground in April and May. Necessary as a winter food source, late bloomers include bee balm, aster, and turtlehead. On the Blue Thumb website, there is a great list of native plants, both woody plant materials, as well as perennials.

If you have a larger acreage, planting a meadow of natives is also encouraged. However, it will entail more work keeping ahead of tree saplings and invasive weeds from moving into your meadow, especially while establishing it. Weeding out saplings and digging up invasive species takes persistence and muscle but has its rewards with the abundance of bees, birds and wildlife you will have living in your meadow.

Dutch farmers have protested a ruling that curtails the expansion of livestock operations because of the nitrogen pollution they produce.  VINCENT JANNINK/ANP/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By: Erik Stokstad 

Last week, Dutch farmers across the country parked their tractors along highways in the third such protest since October, when they jammed traffic while driving en masse to The Hague, the nation’s center of government.

They are protesting a Dutch high court decision that in May suspended permits for construction projects that pollute the atmosphere with nitrogen compounds and harm nature reserves. The freeze has stalled the expansion of dairy, pig, and poultry farms—major sources of nitrogen in the form of ammonia from animal waste. Also blocked are plans for new homes, roads, and airport runways, because construction machinery emits nitrogen oxides. All told, the shutdown puts some €14 billion worth of projects in jeopardy, according to ABN AMRO Bank. “It has really paralyzed the country,” says Jeroen Candel, a political scientist at Wageningen University & Research.

The government is preparing to enact short-term measures, including lowering a highway speed limit, which could reduce nitrogen emissions a sliver. To make a significant dent, many experts say the country’s farm animal sector—the densest in the world—must shrink and recycle more of its nitrogen. Last month, farmers asked for nearly €3 billion over 5 years to help pay for more environmentally friendly ways to deal with manure. Although agriculture is a large source of nitrogen emissions, other sectors will have to rein in their pollution, too. “Those are really tough political decisions that have to be made,” says Jan Willem Erisman, a nitrogen expert at the Louis Bolk Institute in Bunnik.

Nitrogen, a key nutrient for plants, is also an insidious pollutant. Fertilizer washing off fields ends up in lakes and coastal areas, causing algal blooms that kill marine life. Airborne nitrogen can also harm ecosystems. One source is nitrogen oxides, mostly from power plants and engine exhaust. In the Netherlands, even more comes from the ammonia vapors from livestock urine and manure. Both kinds of nitrogen react to form aerosols that cause smog, damage foliage, and acidify the soil, hindering roots’ absorption of nutrients. (Dutch farmers must add lime to their fields to fight acidity.)

The Netherlands is a nitrogen hot spot partly because it is a dense, urbanized nation, although controls on power plants and catalytic converters in autos have helped curb nitrogen oxide emissions. The bigger problem is ammonia emissions from concentrated livestock operations. Dutch farms contain four times more animal biomass per hectare than the EU average. Practices such as injecting liquid manure in the soil and installing air scrubbers on pig and poultry facilities have reduced ammonia emissions 60% since the 1980s, but they have risen slightly since 2014 because of expanding dairy operations. Dutch agriculture is responsible for nearly half of nitrogen pollution that falls in the country.

In 118 of 162 Dutch nature reserves, nitrogen deposits now exceed ecological risk thresholds by an average of 50%. In dunes, bogs, and heathlands, home to species adapted to a lack of nitrogen, plant diversity has decreased as nitrogen-loving grasses, shrubs, and trees move in. Heathlands are turning green-gray as invasive grasses overwhelm the purple heather and yellows and blues of small herbaceous flowering plants, says Eva Remke, an ecologist at B-WARE Research Centre in Nijmegen. “The grasses will win, and the herbs will lose.” These losses cascade through the ecosystem, contributing to the decline of insect and bird diversity, she says.

To control emissions, in 2015 the Netherlands introduced a nitrogen permit system that allows construction if, for example, regional governments reduce nitrogen from other sectors, such as farming. The system relies on a model developed by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) to calculate how much nitrogen is emitted by various activities and how much they contribute to pollution in natural areas.

The system was not enough to satisfy environmental groups. They sued the Dutch government in 2016, demanding that it deny construction permits for expanded animal operations near two nature reserves. The cases ended up in the Court of Justice of the European Union, which last year ruled against the government and criticized the permit system for not ensuring immediate nitrogen reductions.

The Dutch high court implemented the ruling in May, halting all permit applications. It said the government needed to come up with a better system and a long-term plan to reduce nitrogen emissions. In September, a high-level commission suggested some short-term fixes, which the government has asked the high court to review. One idea is to lower the daytime speed limit from 130 to 100 kilometers per hour, which would reduce emissions enough to restart some home building. (The entire construction sector contributes just 0.6% of nitrogen emissions.) The government also wants to require changes in animal feed that would reduce nitrogen levels in manure and to buy out some farms near nature reserves. But the commission warned that deeper emissions cuts would require hard choices.

Some scientists and environmental groups say the Netherlands should move to circular agriculture: Farms should only produce as much manure as they can use to fertilize nearby fields; cows should graze rather than be fed nitrogen-rich, imported soy; and pigs and poultry should eat food waste. That would mean 50% fewer animals, says Natasja Oerlemans, head of agriculture for the World Wildlife Fund–Netherlands in Zeist. “We should use this crisis to transform agriculture,” she says, adding that it will require several decades and billions of euros to reduce the number of animals.

LTO Netherlands in The Hague, which represents 35,000 farmers, endorses the concept of circular agriculture, but cautioned against “hasty measures.” One new grass-roots group, the Farmers Defence Force, contests the RIVM model’s calculations of how much nitrogen from farms is deposited on nature reserves. RIVM has defended its model, which was peer reviewed before its 2015 launch. But it will ask an external committee to review both the model and the national nitrogen monitoring network.

Candel thinks EU courts might impose similar decisions on other European nations in the future. But for now, Dutch farmers will likely face tougher nitrogen restrictions than those in neighboring countries. That will rankle, especially because cross-border pollution is part of the problem, says Wim de Vries, who studies nitrogen impacts at Wageningen. About one-third of the nitrogen pollution deposited in the Netherlands comes from other countries, he says. “Nitrogen spreads everywhere.”

Ames, Iowa — Iowa State University Extension experts say honey bees are facing tough times. Colonies of these pollinators are being lost at an unprecedented rate, and some are blaming farming practices, in particular, the intensive corn and soybean production systems in the Midwest.

New research by Iowa State University and University of Illinois scientists offers a more nuanced view of the role of agriculture in honey bee health than what has been previously known.

Scientists placed honey bee hives next to soybean fields in Iowa and tracked how the bee colonies fared over two growing seasons. The bees did well for much of the summer, they found. The colonies thrived and gained weight, building up their honey stores.

But in August, the trend reversed. By mid-October, most of the honey was gone, the team discovered, and the bees themselves were malnourished.

The researchers moved some of the affected hives to reconstructed prairie sites with a lot of late-flowering prairie plants. Those hives rebounded to healthier levels and were better prepared for winter.

Amy Toth, professor of ecology, evolution, and organismal biology at Iowa State says, “We saw a feast or famine kind of dynamic happening, where in the middle of the summer the hives in ag fields were doing great. In fact, the hives in the most highly agricultural areas out-competed hives in areas with less row-crop production. But then they all just crashed and burned at the end of the season.”

Toth was part of a collaborative team that included ISU entomology professor Matthew O’Neal and others.

Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offer new insights into the role of agriculture on honey bee survival, according to the report’s authors.

Overall, the results show that intensively farmed areas can provide a short-term feast, but such landscapes are unlikely to sustain the long-term nutritional health of colonies. However, reintegration of biodiversity into such landscapes may provide relief from late-season nutritional stress.

Soybean and clover bloom until late July in central Iowa, where the study was conducted. In early August, that food supply dwindles greatly, however. Between early August and mid-October, the researchers found that the weight of the study hives next to soybean fields dropped, on average, more than 50 percent. The bees were eating through their winter stores before the onset of cold weather.

The team is testing an intervention, where strips of reconstructed prairie are installed inside or alongside agricultural fields. In addition to feeding the bees at a crucial time in their life cycle, prairie strips could also reduce erosion and prevent the flow of nutrients from farm fields into waterways, the team said.

Support for this research came from the United Soybean Board, U.S. Department of Agriculture Hatch Act funds, the State of Iowa and Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station

 The Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) seeks to solve critical organic agriculture issues, priorities, or problems through the integration of research, education, and extension activities. The purpose of this program is to fund projects that will enhance the ability of producers and processors who have already adopted organic standards to grow and market high quality organic agricultural products. Priority concerns include biological, physical, and social sciences, including economics. The OREI is particularly interested in projects that emphasize research, education and outreach that assist farmers and ranchers with whole farm planning by delivering practical research-based information. Projects should plan to deliver applied production information to producers. Fieldwork must be done on certified organic land or on land in transition to organic certification, as appropriate to project goals and objectives. Refer to the USDA National Organic Program for organic production standards.

Who Is Eligible to Apply:

1862 Land-Grant Institutions, 1890 Land-Grant Institutions, 1994 Land-Grant Institutions, For-profit Organizations Other Than Small Businesses, Other or Additional Information (See below), Private Institutions of Higher Ed, State Agricultural Experiment Stations, State Controlled Institutions of Higher Ed

More on Eligibility:

The following entities are eligible: 1. State agricultural experiment stations; 2. colleges and universities; 3. university research foundations; 4. other research institutions and organizations; 5. Federal agencies; 6. national laboratories; 7. private organizations or corporations; 8. individuals who are United States citizens or nationals; or 9. any group consisting of 2 or more of the entities described in subparagraphs (1) through (8).

Posted Date:

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

For More Information Contact:

Mathieu Ngouajio

Closing Date:

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Contact for Electronic Access Problems:

electronic@usda.gov(link sends e-mail)

Funding Opportunity Number:

USDA-NIFA-ICGP-007012

CFDA number:

10.307

Abstracts of Funded Projects:

Previous fiscal year(s) RFA:

Estimated Total Program Funding:

$20,000,000

Percent of Applications Funded:

16%

Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement:

100%

Range of Awards:

$50,000 – $2,000,000

Ed Colby
Get On Board!
coloradobees1@gmail.com

By: Ed Colby

Good Luck, Bad Luck.

Despite a fire ban here in western Colorado, on July 3 some yahoos shooting illegal tracer rounds at the Basalt rifle range set off a wildfire. So far it’s burned three homes, one of Derrick’s apiaries, and over 6,000 acres. They brought in 450 firefighters, including hot shot crews from Oregon to do the dirty and dangerous ground work, while helicopters drop water and slurry bombers lay down retardant. Five hundred homes in and around Basalt got evacuated. As of this writing, on July 10, the blaze is 40 percent contained and expected to burn for weeks.

The unintentional arsonists are a couple of dumb kids, if 23 is still a kid. To me they’re kids. Now some of the good citizens of Eagle County are demanding that these unfortunates be drawn and quartered. I get this. I also get it that kids pull some real bonehead stunts. I did a few things I’m not too proud of. I closed the bar more than once, but I never killed anybody on the highway, and I never spent the night in jail. Just lucky, I guess.

Unfortunately, you can’t undo the past. Now those fire starters have to pay their debt to society. But it could have gone the other way, you know. They could have fired those tracer rounds and not started a fire. But their luck ran out.

I’m sorry about Derrick’s bees. He didn’t deserve this. When I worked for Paul, a cheat grass fire scorched a hillside and so thoroughly destroyed a bee yard that you couldn’t tell that bees had ever been there. The only evidence was a handful of nails and a few metal hive parts.

Our local fire ban extends not only to campfires but to charcoal grills, fireworks and outdoor smoking. In all the public service announcements, nobody’s said a thing about bee smokers.

Without smoke, honey bees can be difficult. Without it, I work carefully and try to do just the minimum, i.e., pop a lid, put on a super, and don’t dig around too much. Gloves help.

You don’t want to tempt fate and light your smoker when there’s a fire ban. I won’t say I’ve never done it, because sometimes bees need smoke. But that doesn’t make it right. Around here, cheat grass takes over non-irrigated land and crowds out everything else. It starts out green in the spring, then dries out and turns brown by mid-summer or even earlier. When it’s fully cured it burns like gasoline.

So you wouldn’t want to drop your smoker in some cheat grass and have the lid pop off and embers spill out. If you started a fire, you’d be as guilty as those kids at the rifle range. You, salt-of-the-earth-good-guy beekeeper! The press would crucify you. You might make national news. And of course you’d have the rest of your life to kick yourself.

Fires and smokers aren’t my only problems. A bear breached a solar-powered woven-wire electric fence the other night. He knocked over four hives but only ate a couple. Interestingly, he hauled the brood supers out of the yard and scraped off the brood and honey outside the apiary perimeter.

After I cleaned up the mess, Pepper the blue heeler and I spent the night in the car next to the bee yard. I fell asleep about 10:30, and at 11, Pepper growled. I didn’t hear or see anything outside, but in the morning I found where the bear had pushed down the fence at the same location where he climbed over before.

The next thing I did was buy a voltmeter. I’d been checking the fence the cowboy way – holding a blade of green grass and touching it to the fence to feel for a shock. Clearly the cowboy way didn’t work. When I used my new voltmeter to check the fence, it read 4,500 volts. Five thousand is considered minimum to keep out a bear.

For a good electric fence you need a good ground connection. Let’s say you inadvertently touch the fence. You feel the shock as the electric charge passes through you into the earth, thence to the ground rod, and back to the charger. Complete circuit, and you’re part of it. Dry earth makes a poor connection from you or an animal to the ground rod and is often the reason fences sometimes don’t keep out bears.

I used the weed eater to clear out the weeds and cheat grass under the fence. Then I laid chicken wire on the ground around the outside of the bear fence and wired it to my series of ground rods. This meant that the bear would have to stand on the grounded chicken wire to climb over the fence again. My fence pop went up to 5,500 volts.

The Parks and Wildlife officer came by to take a look. In Colorado, the state reimburses beekeepers for game damage if the apiary has an electric fence. He sent me the paperwork to file a claim. The state pays $200 for a destroyed hive, but I’d rather have my bees back.

The bear hasn’t returned, so far. It’s been 10 days. The incident was my fault, really, but I’m getting compensated for it. I guess I’m just plain lucky.

As of August 8, the fire had burned 12,588 acres and was 90% contained.

Ed Colby practices beekeeping in Aspen Mountain, Colorado, where he lives with his partner, Marilyn.

Ann Harman
Get it touch
ahworkerb@aol.com

By: Ann Harman

Rules, Classes, Judges, Records, Workers

This preparing is not about making your honey ready for a show but how bee associations can start to have one or improve their honey show. Local clubs and state associations frequently hold their individual honey shows in autumn, after the busy bee season. Beekeepers have harvested their honey and decisions are being made about show entries.

Every show needs a Show Chairman. First we will consider the Chairman’s tasks for inaugurating a first honey show for an association. In some ways starting a show may be more difficult than if the association has had one for a number of years. Is there a nearby club that holds a honey show? If you, who volunteered to be the first Show Chairman, have never attended it, then plan to do just that. Explain to that Chairman that you would like to visit so that you could see everything that is involved. However, a honey show, especially a first one, needs time for planning and for publicity. So your honey show will have to be much later, perhaps even the following year.

Beekeepers know when their nectar flows happen. That is the time to put honey supers on. However if they do not know a show is on the club’s program they cannot make plans for entering certain classes, for example cut-comb. It requires thin surplus foundation in its honey super. It would be possible to start with a small, simple show with a few classes for extracted honey, probably the most common product beekeepers have. The show can then be expanded the next year by adding such classes as creamed honey and cut-comb.

A successful show needs entries, lots of entries. One entry in a class is not really competition. A single entry should not be given an award if it does not deserve one. Mediocrity should never be awarded. To get the entries publicity is necessary. The members of the club need to be encouraged to enter. Does the association have a newsletter? Many do not. Some clubs may send out information for a summer potluck picnic or perhaps a Christmas party. Ways will have to be found to get information to all the club members, not just once or twice, but frequently enough to keep up the interest. Although it is possible to give information at club meetings, not all the membership can attend.

By the way, are the members being told about the real purpose of agricultural shows. Yes, honey is an agricultural product, just like corn or wheat or apples. The real purpose is actually learning to improve the product for market. Even if a beekeeper with a couple of hives just gives friends and relatives some honey, that jar of honey should not have bee parts floating around in it.

Now to start planning. Classes need to be established. Extracted (liquid) honey can be classified into seven different color groupings: water white, extra white, white, extra light amber, light amber, amber, dark. For a local club show it is definitely not necessary to offer a class for each of these seven different colors. Some parts of the U.S. do not have a plant source for water white, or perhaps for dark. Choose colors appropriate to the club’s nectar sources.

Other honey classes, such as chunk honey, creamed honey, cut-comb, round sections can be offered. It might be valuable to ask members if they produce any of these and if so, would they enter the show. For a club’s first honey show it is wise to fit classes for what the beekeepers would want to enter. The show can always expand the number of classes as interest grows.

One class, with its origins in the UK and brought here with Welsh judging, is the Black Jar class. Honey is usually presented in a small jar painted black on the outside or the honey is poured into a small black container so that its color and any impurities cannot be seen. The winner is the one that tastes the best to the judge.  Yes, it is subjective. But that has not influenced its popularity.

Some beeswax entries can be offered. A common class is for a block of wax. Frequently the weight is specified, such as a one-pound or a two-pound block. Candle classes can be for a pair of molded tapers, a pair of dipped, or artistic candles. Photography classes have become enormously popular in shows today. For a first show, one class for photographs may be suitable but if overwhelmed with entries it should then be divided. One class could be for beeyard or meadow scenes, another with a beekeeper doing something in a beeyard or closeups of bees doing something. 

Once the initial classes have been decided then it will be necessary to decide the judging. In the U.S. at the moment there are now two judging methods. One would be the most common, using score sheets with points assigned for various criteria, such as moisture content in liquid honey. Measurements would be taken with a refractometer and jars of liquid honey viewed through a polariscope for crystals and debris. Other classes, such as for creamed honey and beeswax classes, would also have numerical scores for various criteria. The other judging method, used now in limited areas, is the Welsh system. To become a judge of this system an exam must be passed. Comments about the quality of the entry, whether honey or wax or photography, are recorded on a card and are not given numerical points. Generally a refractometer is not used. Viewing for crystals and debris in liquid honey is done by shining a flashlight through the jar. Flavor of honey is considered important although this is very subjective, depending on the judge’s taste preferences.

The show information will require some Rules plus the list of Classes and any other information that is important for anyone entering. Rules will state times for entering and for removing entries. An important rule is the one that states that only one entry per person, family or apiary is allowed in each class. This gives everyone an equal entry. In the list of Classes it should state the type of container and how many; for example one, one-pound queenline-type jar with metal or plastic cap. Creamed honey and chunk honey will specify wide-mouth, barrel or straight round jars. Review the Rules and Classes information from nearby clubs with honey shows.

At this point you have decided to have a honey show for your club. One class, or possibly two classes, have become popular. Many children are now participating in beekeeping. The younger ones are working with their parents. Quite a number of teenagers are the beekeepers in the family. Classes for youths are included in some shows. Entry criteria would have to be established – perhaps by age or whether independent or with parents. You will need to determine interest in youth classes.

Show classes and judging methods have been established. It is time to start recruiting some helpers. First could be someone to take care of publicity! The success of the show depends on getting members to enter. Now where to find judges and score sheets? Contact several local clubs that do have honey shows for this information. Yes, you may have to offer a judge money for transportation.

Money! You will need to work with your club’s treasurer. Let’s see what you might need money for. Yes, transportation for a judge, but do you plan to give ribbons, at least for first, second and third? It might be possible to have donations of equipment from beekeeping suppliers for any special prizes you decide to offer. Fortunately your regular meeting room will be suitable for having a small show. However it might be wise to check if it would be available if you plan to have your show on a day different from the regular meeting one. There could be some extra charge for it. You may need some money to make sufficient copies of score sheets and entry forms. Some associations now have their entry forms online if they have a website. Someone entering can fill out the form, print it and bring it to the show along with their entries. Helpers (and you will need them) are simply volunteers and a “thank you” will have to be sufficient. You do not want the honey show to be an expense that will drain the club’s treasury.

What do the Helpers do? The judge, even from a long distance away, should not have contact with the people entering. Therefore, one or two Helpers take in the entries, check the filled-out form, assign a number, place number sticker or tag on entry. Then another Helper(s) takes the entries to the appropriate table. Sometimes these Helpers are provided with the simple lightweight white cotton gloves that are available at hardware stores. The tables for entries should have signs indicating the separate classes. Helpers can assist the judge who will indicate what is needed during the judging. At least one Helper can be useful for cleanup after the show is finished and all the entries have been removed.

One item you can consider is a Suggestion Box. Put a nice big label on it “Suggestions Welcome!” Put a small pile of paper and several pens or pencils next to it and place it near where people are delivering and picking up their entries. Yes, you might get some grumbles from someone who did not win but read through all the suggestions anyway.

If you have space, having a table near the Entry Table can help smooth entering the show. Beekeepers tend to bring their (very precious) entries in a cardboard box crammed with all sorts of packing materials. They need a place to unpack and retrieve the entries from all the wrappings. Unpacking also takes a bit of time. The “unpacking table” really makes entering the show much easier for all.

Oh yes! Be prepared for a catastrophe. They are very rare but can happen, particularly if the show is in very limited space. An open jar of liquid honey gets tipped over. A minor flood on the table, but be quick! before it drips onto the floor. Give profuse apologies to the exhibitor and be certain that it was judged fairly even if only two-thirds of a jar remains.

Every show, new or well-established, needs a Show Chairman whose work for the following year actually begins immediately after the current show. That is the best time to review what went right and, more importantly, what went wrong. You do not want the “went wrongs” to appear again for the next show. Contact all the people who helped with the show. First you want to thank every single one. Remember, they missed parts of the day’s meeting program or activities and you will need helpers next year. Ask them for their “rights and wrongs.” Their input on the “rights and wrongs” is valuable. They will make next year’s show even better. Thank the Helpers for any suggestions they may have.

Keep records! Whether it is the first show or the umpteenth show, those records should be kept and considered important enough to be passed along to future Chairmen. How many people entered, how many entries in each class? If one particular class shows declining entries each year until just one or two enter, then perhaps that class should be dropped – for lack of interest. However you may wish to ask the members if they can think of a different reason. If a class, such as photography is increasing numbers then perhaps one class should be divided into different categories. Is there any interest in some of the different classes held at other shows? Arts and Crafts? Gadgets? A simple quick survey could be taken of all the members. Yes, some will never be interested in entering but you just might get some suggestions that would improve the honey show.

How does a club’s honey show improve marketing? Remember, that is the original purpose. When an entrant finds out – from an experienced honey judge, not from a loving relative – that the liquid honey had weird crystals and a couple of dead bees or was bottled at 19.5% water and will probably ferment, or that the creamed honey was just as runny as if it were liquid – improvement of the product will take place. Then the beekeeper’s honey can start to earn a bit of money for the beekeeper. The honey can take its place at the farmers market or in a small shop. Equipment and new queens cost money. Let award-winning honey become a part of beekeeping.

All photos are from the National Honey Show in the UK.

Ann Harman runs honey shows, judges honey and teaches others how to do a honey show. She lives in Flint Hill, Virginia.

As part of a 33-year effort to protect sensitive lands and improve water quality and wildlife habitat on private lands, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will resume accepting applications for the voluntary Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Eligible farmers, ranchers, and private landowners can sign up at their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office between June 4 and Aug. 17, 2018.              

“The Conservation Reserve Program is an important component of the suite of voluntary conservation programs USDA makes available to agricultural producers, benefiting both the land and wildlife. On the road, I often hear firsthand how popular CRP is for our recreational sector; hunters, fishermen, conservationists and bird watchers,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said. “CRP also is a powerful tool to encourage agricultural producers to set aside unproductive, marginal lands that should not be farmed to reduce soil erosion, improve water quality, provide habitat for wildlife and boost soil health.”

FSA stopped accepting applications last fall for the CRP continuous signup (excluding applications for the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and CRP grasslands). This pause allowed USDA to review available acres and avoid exceeding the 24 million-acre CRP cap set by the 2014 Farm Bill. New limited practice availability and short sign up period helps ensure that landowners with the most sensitive acreage will enroll in the program and avoid unintended competition with new and beginning farmers seeking leases. CRP enrollment currently is about 22.7 million acres.

 2018 Signup for CRP

For this year’s signup, limited priority practices are available for continuous enrollment. They include grassed waterways, filter strips, riparian buffers, wetland restoration and others. View a full list of practices.  FSA will use updated soil rental rates to make annual rental payments, reflecting current values. It will not offer incentive payments as part of the new signup. USDA will not open a general signup this year, however, a one-year extension will be offered to existing CRP participants with expiring CRP contracts of 14 years or less. Producers eligible for an extension will receive a letter with more information.

 CRP Grasslands

Additionally, FSA established new ranking criteria for CRP Grasslands. To guarantee all CRP grasslands offers are treated equally, applicants who previously applied will be asked to reapply using the new ranking criteria. Producers with pending applications will receive a letter providing the options.

 About CRP

In return for enrolling land in CRP, USDA, through FSA on behalf of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), provides participants with annual rental payments and cost-share assistance. Landowners enter into contracts that last between 10 and 15 years. CRP pays producers who remove sensitive lands from production and plant certain grasses, shrubs and trees that improve water quality, prevent soil erosion and increase wildlife habitat.

Signed into law by President Reagan in 1985, CRP is one of the largest private-lands conservation programs in the United States. Thanks to voluntary participation by farmers, ranchers and private landowners, CRP has improved water quality, reduced soil erosion and increased habitat for endangered and threatened species.

The new changes to CRP do not impact the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, a related program offered by CCC and state partners.

Producers wanting to apply for the CRP continuous signup or CRP grasslands should contact their USDA service center. To locate your local FSA office, visit https://www.farmers.gov. More information on CRP can be found at www.fsa.usda.gov/crp

Philadelphia, February 28, 2018 — A new study released in the latest issue of Wilderness & Environmental Medicine shows that animal encounters remain a considerable cause of human harm and death. Researchers analyzed fatalities in the United States from venomous and nonvenomous animals from 2008-2015. They found that while many deaths from animal encounters are potentially avoidable, mortality rates did not decrease from 2008-2015. The animals most commonly responsible for human fatalities are farm animals, insects (hornets, wasps, and bees), and dogs.

In a follow-up to their previous study looking at data from 1999-2007, researchers from Stanford University used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) database to collect data by type of animal and individuals’ age, race, sex, and region where the fatalities occurred. They found that from 2008-2015, there were 1,610 animal-related fatalities in the US, with the majority of deaths the result of encounters with nonvenomous animals (57 percent).

“From this search, we found that the rates of death from encounters with animals has remained relatively stable from the last time we preformed this analysis (1999-2007),” remarked lead investigator Jared A. Forrester, MD, Department of Surgery, Stanford University. “Importantly, most deaths are not actually due to wild animals like mountain lions, wolves, bears, sharks, etc., but are a result of deadly encounters with farm animals, anaphylaxis from bees, wasps, or hornet stings, and dog attacks. So, while it is important that people recreating in the wilderness know what to do when they encounter a potentially dangerous animal, the actual risk of death is quite low.”

During the study period, there were about 86 deaths annually from venomous animal encounters. This is up from 79.5 in 1999-2007, 69 in 1991-2001, 60 in 1979-1990, and 46 from 1950-1959. The most lethal venomous animal encounter remained stings and subsequent anaphylaxis from bees, wasps, and hornets despite the availability of life-saving treatment for anaphylaxis. “Africanized” honey bees may be particularly lethal when they swarm and are increasingly common in the southern and western US.

People with known allergic reactions to bee stings should carry a portable epinephrine delivery device with them at all times. “With an estimated 220,000 annual visits to the emergency department and nearly 60 deaths per year due to stings from hornets, wasps, and bees, effective and affordable treatment for anaphylaxis from Hymenoptera is critical,” said Dr. Forrester. “Public health practitioners, policymakers, and the public should encourage industry to provide proven public health interventions, like the EpiPen, at a socially responsible price point that serves the best interests of the US population.”

The most common nonvenomous encounter group in the study was “other mammals,” which includes cats, horses, cows, other hoof stock, pigs, raccoons, and other mammals. Previous studies determined that the majority deaths associated with “other mammals” occur on farms and that horses and cattle account for 90 percent of farm accidents.

“Preventing potentially fatal farm animal encounters should be a better promoted and supported public health initiative,” explained Dr. Forrester. “Farming remains an industry with a deficit of work-related injury reporting, and opportunities exist to improve safety measures and injury reporting on farms in the US.”

Second to “other mammals,” the study found that dogs are the next most common type of fatal nonvenomous animal encounter, with children under 4 years of age having the highest dog-related fatality rate (4.6 deaths per 10 million persons). The rate of children under 4 years of age killed by dogs was almost two times higher than the next most vulnerable group (persons older than 65 years of age) and four times higher than other age groups.

According to Dr. Forrester, “The burden of fatality upon young children after dog encounters remains troubling. These are preventable deaths.”

Accounting for around 201 deaths annually, mortality resulting from animals is a public health area of interest. Each year in the US alone, over one million emergency room visits and approximately $2 billion in healthcare spending are attributable to problematic animal encounters. Both deaths and high medical costs could be cut down through education, prevention methods, and targeted public policy.

Understanding the underlying reasons for why people die from animal encounters may help prevent them in the future. “Unfortunately, deaths due to human-animal encounters did not decrease from our prior study. Animal-related deaths in ‘controllable’ situations, such as on the farm or in the home, still account for the majority of the deaths. Little in the way of public health policy in the farm workplace has changed since our previous paper,” concluded Dr. Forrester. “Increased specificity in the coding of deaths due to animals in farm environments would help public health professionals target interventions.

Sran Family Orchards, the world’s largest grower of organic almonds, has long committed to sustainable farming, with flower-rich pollinator habitat an integral part of the almond orchards. This investment recently paid off when Sran Family Orchards gained certification as a Bee Better Certified grower.  

“By being Bee Better Certified we are assured that we are being guided by the highest standards of the very best possible program in place for bees’ future,” said Jason Hickman of Sran Family Orchards. “Because we understand the importance of bees and their diversity within the food system, we saw the need here at Sran Family Orchards to do our part in giving the bees the most beneficial diet.”

“We’re thrilled to welcome Sran Family Orchards to the Bee Better Certified community,” said Cameron Newell, Bee Better Certified Coordinator for the Xerces Society.

Bee Better Certified is the only third-party food and farming certification program in the world focused specifically on pollinator conservation. With the goal of giving bees a healthy place to live, the program was launched in June 2017 by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in collaboration with national nonprofit organic certifier, Oregon Tilth.

Jason Hickman and his team at Sran Family Orchards started their work to protect bees and other pollinators years ago. With 23.5 acres of permanent pollinator habitat and 116 acres of flowering cover crops spread strategically across their 10 ranches, they knew that Bee Better Certified would be a good fit for them. 

“It was these extensive habitat plantings that allowed them to adapt so quickly and to become the very first Bee Better Certified farm,” noted Newell.       

Bee Better Certified’s focus on habitat is unique among farm certification programs, yet compatible with any farming operation. All growers wanting to be certified are required to dedicate part of their land to flowering habitat and mitigate exposure to pesticides through a combination of preventative pest management techniques and the elimination of high-risk pesticides.

“As the first grower to achieve this certification, Sran Family Orchards has established itself as a clear leader, moving the almond industry toward a future in sustainable production,” said Eric Lee-Mäder, who as the Xerces Society’s Pollinator Program Co-Director has guided the development of the Bee Better Certified program.

Oregon Tilth, partner in the development of the Bee Better Certified program standards, assesses and certifies farms based on habitat created and pest management strategies that protect crop pollinators.

“The heart of any certification program is strong, credible and achievable standards,” said Oregon Tilth Certification Director Connie Karr. “Bee Better Certified is unique in how the requirements for getting certification blends together the technical know-how of Xerces with verifiable and accessible farm production practices. Sran Family Orchards demonstrates how holistic, systems-based thinking on farms can lead to farm resilience and success.”

Bee Better Certified was developed with the support of an advisory board comprised of experts in the fields of agriculture, certification, pesticide risk mitigation, pollinator research, retail and sustainable sourcing. Startup funding was received through the Conservation Innovation Grant program run by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

About Bee Better Certified

Bee Better Certified is creating better places for bees. The program works with farmers to create, restore, and protect habitat for pollinators. Bee Better Certified farms contain flower-rich habitats that are protected from pesticides. To learn more, visit beebettercertified.org.

Bee Better Certified is a trademark of the Xerces Society, Inc.

For information about creating pollinator habitat on farms, visit https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/

 About the Xerces Society

The Xerces Society is a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. Established in 1971, the Society is a trusted source for science-based information and advice. We collaborate with people and institutions at all levels and our work to protect pollinators encompasses all landscapes. Our team draws together experts from the fields of habitat restoration, entomology, botany, and conservation biology with a single focus—protecting the life that sustains us. To learn more about our work, visit www.xerces.org.

 About Oregon Tilth

Oregon Tilth is a leading national nonprofit certifier, educator, and advocate for organic agriculture and products since 1974. Our mission to make our agriculture biologically sound and socially equitable requires us to find practical ways to tackle big challenges. We advance this mission to balance the needs of people and planet through focus on certification, conservation, policy, and the marketplace. For more on our mission and services, visit www.tilth.org.

 About Sran Family Orchards

Since the 1950s, Sran Family Orchards has been focused on growing quality products and developing innovative processes. With roots as family farmers, we understand the unique needs of the grower, and have built this business model and a processing plant designed to serve those needs. Sran Family Orchards is the largest grower of organic almonds. This share of the market provides us a distinctive perspective and exciting opportunities to lead the way in modern processing techniques. With our system, we take almonds from shell to shelf while maintaining the highest quality product and providing the best value to the grower. For more about Sran Family Orchards, visit www.sranfamilyorchards.com.

As 2017 was drawing to a close, while many people were planning to fanfare the New Year, Sran Family Orchards quietly passed a different milestone: It became the first farm to become Bee Better Certified. Gaining this certification is recognition for the Sran family’s years of unheralded dedication, and we couldn’t be happier that Sran Family Orchards is the first farm to receive this accolade.

Sran Family Orchards is based in Kerman, California, in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, one of the world’s most intensively farmed regions and a landscape that offers little in the way of habitat for pollinators. This may seem an unlikely place to be home to the first Bee Better Certified grower, but the Sran family have a long-held commitment to sustainable farming—in particular supporting the bees that are central to the success of their harvest. With roots in the 1950s as a family farm growing row crops, successive generations of the family have built the company into the largest grower of organic almonds.

 Sran Family Orchards have planted miles of hedgerows that include native shrubs such as California lilac, as well as acres of flowering habitat to support bees in the almond orchards. Photo: Sran Family Orchards

 Sran Family Orchards operate ten orchards in Fresno and Madera counties. Recognizing the importance of diversity in the agricultural landscape, the Sran family started on a path to make their orchards better for bees long before the launch of Bee Better Certified.

Jason Hickman and his team at Sran Family Orchards have planted miles of hedgerows, which create nearly 24 acres of permanent pollinator habitat, and 116 acres of flowering understory plantings between their rows of almond trees, carpeting the ground with flowers and extending habitat deep into the orchards to make them more hospitable to bees. Xerces conservationist Jessa Kay Cruz helped with project planning.

With the advent of Bee Better Certified, Sran Family Orchards saw an opportunity to do more to help bees. In addition to habitat, the Bee Better Certified production standards require growers to mitigate exposure of bees to pesticides through a combination of preventative pest management techniques and the elimination of high-risk pesticides.

Bee Better Certified stands out as the only food and farming pollinator conservation certification program that requires third-party inspection. Farm assessment and certification is undertaken by Oregon Tilth, a leading national nonprofit certifier for organic agriculture and products, whose team of inspectors ensure that the process is rigorous and that standards are met.

As Jason Hickman noted, this certification program assures the Sran family and their company that they were being guided by the highest standards of the best program in place for bees’ future. By being Bee Better Certified, Sran Family Orchards have one more way to lead the almond industry in the direction of a more sustainable future.