By Bob West
Everyone involved in agriculture in California knows how challenging 2021 was for farmers and suppliers alike. Our first look at the PURE Intel+ data measuring pesticide applications to agricultural crops in California illustrates the degree to which everybody was challenged throughout the state. Final application data still needs to be collected, but, based on historical trends and the strong reporting to date, we project the following:
- California’s farmers made roughly 315,000 fewer applications of restricted-use pesticides (RUPs) in 2021 than they did in 2020;
- Approximately 750 fewer California farmers reported making any RUP applications in 2021 than did so in 2020, which equates to a 4% decrease;
- California farmers will ultimately report roughly 92 million treated acres of RUP applications in 2021 – a 10% drop from 2020 and 13% lower than treated acres reported in 2020.
Many factors challenged California farmers in 2020 from a lack of available water to softer almond prices to labor shortages to shipping delays. And nearly every part of the state’s agricultural industry felt the impact.
The chart below lists projected final treated acreage numbers for the 10 largest counties, and Monterey County is the only one of the 10 not showing a decrease from 2020. Furthermore, note that 2021 treated acreage numbers fall short of the average number of treated acres for the four previous years in eight of the 10 counties.
Not surprisingly, nearly every product category tracked in PURE Intel+ shows a year-over-year decline in treated acres with only miticides and special activity (mostly comprised of mating disrupters) showing growth vs. 2020.
Special products (ie., mating disrupters) and miticides were the only two product categories to show growth in treated acres from 2020 to 2021.The treated acreage data at the crop level tells the same story. The annual decline was most severe for cotton, whose treated acreage dropped considerably due to a dramatic decline in the number of planted acres of cotton over the past few years as water issues have become more pronounced. But the more significant drops could be found in the state’s top two crop categories: tree nuts and grapes. Farmers undoubtedly appreciated how little disease pressure they felt throughout last summer’s drought, but that silver lining doesn’t benefit industry suppliers.
PURE Intel+ data also includes application numbers for every active ingredient and brand applied in California. Monsanto’s Roundup Powermax was applied to more acres than any other brand yet again in 2021, and it wasn’t close as farmers in the Golden State applied Roundup Max to more than twice as many acres as they did any other brand. Intrepid and Microthiol Disperss held firm in second and third place, respectively, while Altacor climbed from sixth in 2020 to fourth in 2021.
PURE Intel+ is a product of Meister Media Worldwide, and it is a comprehensive database of every application of a restricted-use product made to all agricultural crops produced throughout California. PURE Intel+ is updated monthly to provide current and actionable market intelligence that will help drive your business forward. For more information about PURE Intel+ or to schedule a demo of the platform, contact Meister Media’s Bob West at 440-602-9129 or [email protected].