Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1286027
RESEARCH UPDATE 13 Bee+ Scholarship Helps Growers Cover All Their Bases For almond growers who have been thinking about using cover crops in and around their orchards – to improve pollination, improve soil water-holding capacity and reduce compaction, and potentially expand market opportunities – there's never been a better time to try it. This summer, the Almond Board of California (ABC) launched the new Bee+ Scholarship program, which seeks to engage growers in planting cover crops in or around their orchards. One aspect of this scholarship involves ABC's work with Pollinator Partnership to align its Bee Friendly Farming (BFF) 1 program with modules in ABC's California Almond Sustainability Program (CASP). This alignment, in addition to ABC covering the cost for scholarship recipients to participate in the BFF program, make it even easier to receive Bee Friendly Farming certification, which allows growers and their processors to use the Bee Friendly Farming logo on their product. In addition, growers will be publicly recognized on Pollinator Partnership's website as being a "Bee Friendly Farm" and receive a BFF metal sign to display on their property. "We've greatly expanded the opportunity for almond growers to be recognized in the market for the work they do to promote bee health," said Josette Lewis, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at ABC. Because cover crops are a key component of the Bee Friendly Farming program requirements, growers participating in the Bee+ Scholarship will also receive up to $2,000 worth of free cover crop seed, per grower, through Project Apis m.'s Seeds for Bees program. The seed is expertly premixed for a variety of situations, soils and other conditions, and comes with free expert technical advice to maximize cover crop performance. ABC has invested in research to identify ways to maximize benefits of cover crops in and around almond orchards. Recognizing that growers need to experience those benefits for themselves, the Bee+ Scholarship greatly reduces the costs and risk associated with giving cover crops a try. The scholarship also recognizes that interest in cover crops and bee-friendly farming practices is shared throughout the industry's stakeholder community, including end consumers, food companies and, more and more, policymakers. The increased investment by ABC through the scholarship is enough to add about 3,500 acres of cover crops in/ around the state's almond orchards, and Billy Synk, director of Pollination Programs for Project Apis m., is anticipating strong participation in the scholarship. "With the support of ABC's Bee+ Scholarship program, we expect to see around a 50% growth in the number of participants in the Seeds for Bees program from the 2019/2020 season to the 2020/2021 season," Synk said. Up to 100 growers are invited to participate in ABC's Bee+ Scholarship at no cost, so growers should act fast to secure its multiple benefits. Manteca grower did it for bees, saw far more benefits Chris Rishwain, who grows 150 acres of almonds in the Manteca area, is just finishing up his second full year using cover crops – and he is sold on the benefits he's seeing. "The original intent was to support bee pollination. I thought, 'That's a great idea – seems like a win-win for us and the B ee + S c h o la r s h ip 1 Watch this short video to learn more about the BFF program: https://youtu.be/gtxh55ZQiOI With the alignment of CASP and the BFF program, growers who complete certain CASP modules will automatically be able to check some boxes in the process of becoming Bee Friendly certified.