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California | I appreciate that I am asking a lot here. Here is what I've found with some preliminary research wrt big challenges in the lettuce growing business. I was hoping to hear from farmers who could shed some light on the severity of these challenges and how they impact their business. Again, I realize this is a lot to ask. Any feedback is welcome!
1. Diseases like pythium wilt or INSV brought in by thrips & other insects, causing large scale crop failures (https://californiaagtoday.com/devastating-lettuce-virus/)
-> is this a localized issue?
-> do wide spread crop failures happen often, or is it more cyclical? up where I am from, we have gypsy moths that eat away the leaves off of most deciduous trees. some summers, entire forests are laid bare. you can spray against the bugs but their spawning is cyclical so you can also just wait a couple years and the problem "takes care of itself". that's obviously not a solution in this case
2. Extreme weather events like floods & low temperatures (https://financialpost.com/commodities/agriculture/lettuce-prices-rise-stay-high-california-flooding)
-> outside of moving to controlled-environment agriculture, can anything be done to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events? e.g. planting earlier\later in the year, planting more weather resistant strains...
3. Water management
-> what kind of high tech & low tech solutions exist to manage water usage?
-> what are the costs of implementing new systems like drip irrigation? what are the other effects of updating irrigation systems (e.g. need to train staff, high costs of maintenance, etc)
4. Government regulations
-> are there frequent changes in regulation that affect your farms?
-> are there any existing rules & regulations that no longer make sense for today's farming practices? | |
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California Lettuce Farmer Survey
