Pesticide applications to California farms have dropped dramatically from last year as farmers confront severe challenges with drought, labor, transportation and commodity prices.
By Bob West, Business, Director of Data Products for Meister Media Worldwide
Through the first half of 2021, a combination of factors have combined to significantly reduce the amount of pesticides being applied on farms throughout California. According to Meister Media’s PURE Intel+ data platform, the number of treated acres will drop from 62.5 million for the first six months of 2020 to 51.4 million for the first half of 2021. This represents an 18% drop that is also considerably lower than the treated acre figures for the three previous years. (Note: A treated acre is defined as 1 acre of crop that is treated by any single restricted use pesticide. A tank mix of three restricted use products applied to 1 acre would produce three treated acres.)
This drop is occurring on farms across the entire state and among farms growing nearly every crop as all growers grapple with a lack of water and available labor, which has forced many of them to change their planting plans, their chemical programs, or both. Here are the projected number of treated acres for the first six months of 2021 for each of California’s top five counties (in terms of treated acres thus far in 2021):
| County | 2021 Treated Acres (through July) | 2021 vs. 2020 |
| Fresno | 11,096,248 | -18% |
| Kern | 7,619,005 | -16% |
| Tulare | 5,999,645 | -5% |
| San Joaquin | 4,236,946 | -9% |
| Monterey | 4,108,913 | 0% |
| 33,060,756 | -12% |
Imperial, Monterey, Santa Barbara and Ventura are the only four of the state’s 58 counties that we project may end up with equal or slightly greater treated acres in 2021. Unfortunately, those four counties only accounted for 14% of the total number of treated acres in California in 2020 and their projected 2021 growth is minimal, so losses in other counties bring down the number of treated acres for the entire state.
Tree nuts (particularly almonds) and grapes account for the largest drops in the number of treated acres, but the PURE Intel+ data shows a drop in treated acres for every crop group other than cole vegetables. The most significant drops compared to 2020 are in cotton (down 57%), tree nuts (down 23%), grapes (down 21%), grains / cereals (down 18%) and fruiting vegetables (down 16%).
Not surprisingly, nearly every category of pesticide product tracked by PURE Intel+ shows a fairly significant year-over-year decline as well. In fact, year-over-year growth can only be found in miticides, thus far.
Slightly more than 60% of pesticide applications in the state occur in the first six months of the year, which means we’re projecting a full-year figure of 82 million to 88 million treated acres for 2021. This would represent a year-over-year decline of 14 to 20 million acres or roughly 17%.
“The water situation is dire for some growers in some parts of the state, but those growers – such as in the Sacramento Delta region or on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley – largely knew they’d be facing some cuts this year,” notes Dave Eddy, Editor of Meister Media’s American Fruit Grower and Western Fruit Grower magazine. “Most fruit and nut growers have enough water to produce excellent crops this year. However, there has already been some land taken out of production in preparation for what many see as coming water shortages, which will definitely occur next season if we don’t have a wet winter.
“Meanwhile, the lack of labor has mostly been a problem for fruit growers of hand-picked crops, such as stone fruits, and the coming heavy harvest season could be problematic,” he adds.
“In addition to water and labor, transportation is another issue,” adds Carol Miller, Editor of Meister Media’s American Vegetable Grower magazine. “There’s simply not enough drivers. That will likely drive lower value crops out of California.”
Ultimately, 2021 looks to be a uniquely challenging year for California farmers.
“It is one tough year for growers of tree nuts and grapes because the prices they receive have been so low,” observes Eddy. “Wine grape growers have had an overproduction problem and faced attendant low prices for the past several years, provoking industry leaders to make the highly unusual call of asking growers to pull vines of certain varieties in certain regions.”
The almond market represents such a large portion of the California market (27% of all treated acres in 2020), that problems in that are particularly impactful for the state as a whole. “Low prices have left almond growers with such thin operating margins, even the most careful growers are forced to cut back somewhere,” adds Eddy. “Most almond growers won’t cut back on expenses such as pollination, as that can really shrink crop size, but most are making cuts in some of their crop inputs. Even some of the best growers I know, who detest cutting corners, have told me they’re scaling back on their crop inputs in the 15% range.”
PURE Intel+ is a comprehensive database of every pesticide application 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, contact Meister Media’s Bob West at 440-602-9129 or [email protected].