Ag Alert June 9, 2021

Citrus Continued from Page 7

HealthManagement Areas, or CHMAs, in 2010. That involvedvoluntarygroupingsof farmers tocoordinate insecticide applica- tion timing andmode of action to control theAsiancitruspsyllidacrossneighboring citrus groves. Therewere 55CHMAs but only 20were active, Singermansaid. Atotal of 123 farm- ers representing153,278acresparticipated on roughly a third of Florida citrus acre- age. Surveyed non-CHMA growers said reasons for not participating included “neighborsdonot participate” and“prefer to spray onmy own timing,” he said. Singerman said it may be necessary to replace the voluntary character of the areawide pest management effort with a mandatory component, and to require processors and packinghouses to provide documentationthat fruithasbeensubject- ed to coordinated treatments, supplying documentation fromgrowers. “Following site-specific pest manage- ment ignores the collective nature of the problem,” he said. “HLB impact inFlorida illustrates the consequences of noncoop- erativebehavior.Noncoordinatinggrowers impose a cost on thosewho do.” Arecordingof thediscussion isavailable at arediscussions.ucdavis.edu. (Denni s Pol lock i s a repor t er in F r e s no . He ma y b e c on t a c t e d a t agcompollock@yahoo.com.)

countiesof LosAngeles,Orange, Riverside andSanBernardino, andcitrusquarantine zones have been established to prevent movement of fruit. HLB has brought added insecticide costs for areawide management of the Asian citrus psyllid, the insect that can transmit the disease. Babcock said HLB has added costs for tarping trucks loaded with citrus, and logistical costs due to re- strictionsof citrusmovement. Ithasdriven up the cost of assessments to fund HLB/ psyllid control efforts. Babcock calculated the farmer value of saving California citrus at $500million per year and the consumer value potentially savedbyHLBcontrolat$1.2billionperyear. He saidmandarins can likely continue to compete because of product attributes, demand and marketing efforts. Lemon competition fromimportsmaydictate the relative future of that crop, he said. The picture for Florida during those 20 years was far darker. Singerman talked of a sharp drop in cit- rus production inFlorida, and said that al- thoughHLBwas amajor factor, it was not theonlyone.Therewere fourhurricanes in

California has increased its share of U.S. lemon acreage since 1980, and a larger proportion of the crop meets fresh-market quality standards, according to a University of California professor.

2004, another in2006andanother in2017, for example. Orange bearing acreage in Florida droppedfromjustmore than600,000acres tofewer than400,000.Valenciaorangeyield alsoplummeted,while thereal production cost of processed oranges rose. The num- ber of Florida citrus farmersdropped from more than 7,000 to fewer than 3,000. And thenumberof citrus juiceprocessing facil-

ities and fresh fruit packers alsodeclined. SingermandiscussedHLBmanagement practices in Florida. They included use of foliar nutrients, which drove up produc- tion costs. There was thermotherapy, which, along with foliar antibiotic sprays, failed. There were high-density plant- ings, which proved extremely costly, with lengthy payback periods. And there was areawide pest manage- ment, a regional approach because of the mobilityof thepsyllid. InFlorida, therewas formation of what was known as Citrus

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8 Ag Alert June 9, 2021