A farm systems approach to the adoption of sustainable nitrogen management practices in California

Rudnick, Jessica; Lubell, Mark; Khalsa, Sat Darshan S.; Tatge, Stephanie; Wood, Liza; Sears, Molly; Brown, Patrick H.

doi:10.1007/s10460-021-10190-5

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Multiple adoption studies over decades across regions and cropping systems have demonstrated higher adoption of conservation practices on larger farms (Prokopy et al, 2008;Prokopy et al, 2019). Larger farms have more financial capital and economics of scale, which reduces barriers to practice adoption associated with cost, time to return on investment, and risk (Kipling et al, 2019;Rudnick et al, 2021). Risk allocation across larger farming operations with many management units facilitates grower testing of new practices and technologies that cannot easily be achieved in smaller operations (Ghadim et al, 2005;Miller et al, 2019).…”

Section: Farm Size and Water Resources Matter To Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, drought conditions in California drive high water costs and the dominance of irrigation for fruit and nut crops creates a paradigm where water conservation and security are paramount to economic viability. Use of microirrigation facilitates greater adoption of other conservation practices that are easier to implement through pressurized irrigation systems than in flood-irrigated systems (Rudnick et al, 2021). Historically, the promotion of drip or microirrigation has been shown to play an important role in conservation (Taylor and Zilberman, 2017).…”

Section: Farm Size and Water Resources Matter To Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In California's water limited climate, greater water demand in nut crops encourages conversion to microirrigation, which paves the way for the adoption of suites of conservation practices. (Lopus et al, 2010;Taylor and Zilberman, 2017;Rudnick et al, 2021). To that end, we expect growers who use more N and water inputs to have more awareness and incentives to adopt conservation practices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linking Agronomic and Knowledge Barriers to Adoption of Conservation Practices for Nitrogen Management

Khalsa¹,

Rudnick²,

Lubell³

et al. 2022

Front. Agron.

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Agricultural nitrogen (N) use is a major contributor to environmental problems arising from nitrous oxide emissions and N loading to groundwater. Advances in the adoption of conservation practices requires a better understanding of the agronomic context for cropping systems. This paper tests hypotheses about how agronomic and knowledge barriers influence the adoption of conservation practices for N management in orchard agroecosystems. Agronomic barriers are characterized by farm size, irrigation systems and access to water resources, and knowledge barriers are influenced by the availability of information and use of information sources. Our study focuses on the California’s San Joaquin Valley where we collected 879 in-person surveys from fruit and nut growers focused on ten different conservation practices related to fertilizer use, irrigation and soil health. We used logistic regression models to identify parameters influencing adoption and differences in adoption between fruit and nut growers. Our results indicate that overall growers report higher adoption for practices for fertilizer use compared to irrigation and soil health. Growers with larger parcels, microirrigation and more water security had a higher probability of practice adoption. Nut crops are more agronomically intense than fruit crops requiring higher rates of N fertilizer and water use. Nut growers adopted significantly more practices than fruit growers, and also utilized significantly more information sources and experienced significantly fewer practice challenges. Our results collectively support our hypotheses that agronomic and knowledge barriers differ between fruit and nut growers, and help to explain the variance in adoption of conversation practices in orchard agroecosystems. Furthermore, the significance of our work offers a case study for other regions and agroecosystems to address the need for linking agronomic and knowledge barriers to adoption in an effort to promote global climate-smart and regenerative agriculture initiatives.

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Section: Farm Size and Water Resources Matter To Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Farm Size and Water Resources Matter To Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linking Agronomic and Knowledge Barriers to Adoption of Conservation Practices for Nitrogen Management

Khalsa¹,

Rudnick²,

Lubell³

et al. 2022

Front. Agron.

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“…In response to these challenges, various regulatory programs have been implemented in California over the past decade, requiring growers to increase the efficiency of irrigation and nitrogen use ( Rudnick et al., 2021 ). Meeting these regulations will require more precise and adaptive irrigation and nitrogen management strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree-level almond yield estimation from high resolution aerial imagery with convolutional neural network

Tang

Sadowski²,

Chen³

et al. 2023

Front. Plant Sci.

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IntroductionEstimating and understanding the yield variability within an individual field is critical for precision agriculture resource management of high value tree crops. Recent advancements in sensor technologies and machine learning make it possible to monitor orchards at very high spatial resolution and estimate yield at individual tree level.MethodsThis study evaluates the potential of utilizing deep learning methods to predict tree-level almond yield with multi-spectral imagery. We focused on an almond orchard with the ‘Independence’ cultivar in California, where individual tree harvesting and yield monitoring was conducted for ~2,000 trees and summer aerial imagery at 30cm was acquired for four spectral bands in 2021. We developed a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model with a spatial attention module to take the multi-spectral reflectance imagery directly for almond fresh weight estimation at the tree level.ResultsThe deep learning model was shown to predict the tree level yield very well, with a R2 of 0.96 (±0.002) and Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE) of 6.6% (±0.2%), based on 5-fold cross validation. The CNN estimation captured well the patterns of yield variation between orchard rows, along the transects, and from tree to tree, when compared to the harvest data. The reflectance at the red edge band was found to play the most important role in the CNN yield estimation.DiscussionThis study demonstrates the significant improvement of deep learning over traditional linear regression and machine learning methods for accurate and robust tree level yield estimation, highlighting the potential for data-driven site-specific resource management to ensure agriculture sustainability.

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“…However, government approaches to improve agricultural sustainability differ considerably, for example with more regulations in Europe than the United States, and there is an opportunity to learn from these experiences (Hutchins, 2021). California is unique because of new regulations for water and nitrogen inputs, making it an important case study for highly productive agricultural regions in the United States and beyond (Lubell et al., 2020; Rudnick et al., 2021). It is unclear how increased regulations will impact grower priorities and decision‐making at the farm‐level, particularly in relation to existing crop management challenges and other recent changes in farm economics, market demand, land use, labor availability, and pressures to conserve natural resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Top management challenges and concerns for agronomic crop production in California: Identifying critical issues for extension through needs assessment

et al. 2021

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Agronomic cropping systems in many regions face growing economic and management challenges as well as new regulations designed to address negative environmental and social externalities. At the same time, public support for agricultural education and extension is decreasing. Hence, new approaches are necessary to understand the most pressing on-farm issues and help prioritize critical needs. With a diversity of agronomic crops and new regulations for water and nitrogen, California is an important case study for other regions. The objective of this study was to identify major grower and industry concerns, management challenges, and motivations in making management decisions. In 2020, 483 growers, consultants, and allied industry of agronomic crop production responded to an online survey. The crops most widely grown by respondents included rice (Oryza sativa L.), alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and corn (Zea mays L.). Four out of the five top concerns were related to water. Weed control and irrigation/water management were primary management challenges, though differences occurred by crop and region. The highest priorities considered in grower management decision-making were water, profitability, and land stewardship. Crop rotation benefits were a primary reason for growing agronomic crops, with profitability and tradition ranking closely behind. This study highlights opportunities to guide research and extension efforts based on critical needs identified by growers and industry, while also informing larger policy and institutional decisions regarding new programs and funding to address key issues in agronomic crop production.

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A farm systems approach to the adoption of sustainable nitrogen management practices in California

Cited by 16 publications

References 72 publications

Linking Agronomic and Knowledge Barriers to Adoption of Conservation Practices for Nitrogen Management

Linking Agronomic and Knowledge Barriers to Adoption of Conservation Practices for Nitrogen Management

Tree-level almond yield estimation from high resolution aerial imagery with convolutional neural network

Top management challenges and concerns for agronomic crop production in California: Identifying critical issues for extension through needs assessment

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