By Monserrat Solis, SJV Water
A large-scale pilot project studying the effects of recharging water onto pistachio orchards, some with cover crops and some without, is in full swing across the San Joaquin Valley.
The project, a collaboration between private nonprofit Sustainable Conservation, American Pistachio Growers and Fresno State University kicked off in January and will study recharge on six orchards in Tulare, Merced and Madera counties. Each pilot partner recharges onto 20 acres of orchard with cover crops and 20 acres with no cover crops.
“It’s an honor to be part of this research project,” Jimi Valov, a third generation pistachio farmer and pilot partner said during a visit to his orchard in Tulare County.
Valov spoke with visitors in January as water gushed onto his orchard.
Pistachios were chosen for this recharge project because they cover about 600,000 acres in the Central Valley, Rogell Rogers, an Agronomist for Sustainable Conservation told SJV Water.
“Because of the substantial acreage and the location within high-priority basins, pistachio orchards could play an outsized role in increasing the groundwater recharge capacity of the San Joaquin Valley,” Rogers said.
University graduate students will take samples to monitor soil health and water quality during the project as well as study the economics of the project.
“Soil health kind of influences a lot of parameters,” graduate student Jacob Philip III said during the visit to Valov’s farm. “So, we’re looking at how all these factors are being affected by recharge and then how having a cover crop on the field will enhance that or maybe change what goes on compared to a bare field.”
Project leaders hope on-farm recharge will also address domestic water quality, a major concern for many remote, rural communities, Rogers said.
“This study is the extension study of soil health, cover cropping is kind of zeroing in on that and will give us some answers that growers can use,” he said of water quality issues.
Specifically, the project will look at whether recharge cover crops can reduce nitrates in groundwater.
High levels of nitrate, primarily, from fertilizers applied to farmland, can be lethal to newborns, causing what’s commonly known as “blue baby syndrome.” Some studies have also found a link between long-term nitrate exposure and some types of cancer.
The recharge project is funded by a California Department of Food and Agriculture grant, which was approved by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, for nearly $500,000.
