October 06, 2016

Nutritional challenges facing nut and potato farmers

Yara organized a series of expert panels to gather input from key farmers, crop advisors, and researchers, with the main goal of learning about the major crop nutrition challenges facing the almond and potato industry.

Almonds are grown on about 1 million acres in California while potatoes are grown on about 500,000 acres in the Pacific Northwest (Idaho, Oregon, and Washington) and almonds and potatoes are Focus Crops for Yara North America. Along with almonds, other key nut crops include hazelnuts, pistachios, and walnuts. Yara is in the process of revising the Potato Plantmaster and creating a Nut Tree Plantmaster. As a part of that process, Yara organized a series of expert panels to gather input from key farmers, crop advisors, and researchers. These expert panels were convened in California (almonds), Oregon (hazelnuts), and Washington (potatoes), near the center of production of these key focus crops. The almond meeting was held in the conference room of the California Association of Pest Control Advisors, the hazelnut meeting was held in conjunction with the Oregon Hazelnut Commission meeting, and the potato meeting was held in heart of the potato growing and processing region of central Washington state.

The main goal of the expert panels was to learn about the major crop nutrition challenges facing the almond and potato industry. At the beginning of each meeting, the attendees were asked to tell us about their views on how to improve the nutrient management of their crops. They were also asked to discuss which environmental stresses (salinity, sodicity, pests, etc.) were limiting production so we could help design research and marketing programs to address their issues. The most appropriate and agronomically sound approach to addressing these issues will be part of the upcoming Nut Tree Plantmaster and the updated Potato Plantmaster.

“Working together with farmers and crop advisors, listening to their needs and challenges is helping us to understand how we can support the industry profitability while protecting the planet, by using our knowledge, reliable products and application tools,” Says Javier Duran, Marketing Manager for Yara North America .

The attendees were grateful for Yara’s sincere interest in the challenges facing their industries and they expressed their appreciation for Yara taking the initiative to help them address the challenges. The attendees were especially impressed with the crop nutrition information shared by Barry Bull from the Yara Academy and the opportunity to provide input to Petra Junklawitz from the Yara Hanninghof R & D Center.

The main nutritional challenges facing almond, hazelnut and potato farmers seem to be:

Almonds
• Nitrogen management, especially as related to regulations in California.
• Potassium fertilizer timing, source, and placement
• Proper micronutrient fertilization, especially zinc
• Boron toxicity
• Appropriate use of gypsum
• Water management to increase water use efficiency leach salts and minimize nitrate leaching

Hazelnuts
• Greater understanding of tree nutrient uptake and utilization
• Nitrogen management, including optimum source, rate and timing
• Potassium fertilizer timing, source, and placement
• Appropriate use of foliar nutrients, especially micronutrients
• Irrigation management, including how much water to apply and when to apply it.
• Fertigation, especially information about appropriate nutrient sources, timing, and rates.