- Summer 99 "Update" Article -

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Researchers eye water use issues in new projects

From CATI Publication #9907001 Copyright © 1999. All rights reserved.

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Bringing improvements in crop production and product processing are among the goals of California State University, Fresno scientists who will begin new agricultural research projects this year.

With financial support from the California Agricultural Technology Institute (CATI), private industry and other agencies, researchers will test new methods of irrigating grapevines, freezing processed peaches, and fertilizing apricots with "sewer sludge." Experiments will be conducted at Fresno State’s University Farm Laboratory and in privately-owned fields and processing plants throughout central California.

The new projects reveal CATI’s continuing focus on applied research, offering results that can be immediately employed by California’s agriculture and agribusiness industries to increase efficiency, productivity, and profits.

Dissemination of research results is a high priority for CATI and will be accomplished in many ways, including written technical reports and research bulletins; through conferences, workshops and seminars; in the CATI Update newsletter; and electronically through the World Wide Web (see addresses on Page 7).

Most CATI projects are conducted through one of our four major research centers, all located on the Fresno State campus. They include the Center for Agricultural Business (CAB), the Center for Food Science and Nutrition Research (CFSNR), the Center for Irrigation Technology (CIT), and the Viticulture and Enology Research Center (VERC).

Each center oversees specific CATI-funded projects, as well as research requested and funded by other public and private agencies. Following are summaries of projects funded through CATI for the 1999-2000 fiscal year and the names of the principal investigators:

Center for Agricultural Business

The possibility of seasonal farm labor shortages continues to be a concern to those involved in California crop production. In response, social sciences professor Andrew Alvarado will lead a research team in a labor force survey. Information to be obtained includes demographics of the farm labor force in the western region, availability of workers, recruiting and hiring methods of employers, legal status, living arrangements and earning of workers.

Another researcher will approach the labor shortage issue from a different perspective. Agricultural economics professor Lynn Williams will conduct economic feasibility studies of several different raisin production operations in the San Joaquin Valley. The goal is to determine whether systems featuring mechanized drying and harvesting offer more economic promise that traditional hand-labor systems, given current world production and marketing trends.

Animal Science professor Michael Thomas will continue studies of a new polymer-based hand lotion that may protect field workers from pesticide-related chemicals that can be absorbed through the hands when the workers harvest crops.

Rising costs of water and energy, combined with world market competition, make agricultural production a tricky venture even for the experienced producer. With those challenges in mind, agricultural economics professor James Cothern plans to develop a professional educational portfolio that makes use of computer and Internet programming to analyze risk management in agricultural production. The portfolio will be offered through a series of risk management seminars next year.

CAB’s Agricultural Safety Program has encouraged many agricultural businesses to make safety issues a top priority in planning and policy-making during recent years. That program is slated to continue again this year sponsoring events and services such as the annual AgSafe Conference, regional safety meetings, the Agricultural Safety Certificate Program, and human resource management training seminars.

Center for Food Science and Nutrition Research

Industrial technology professor Tony Au and food science specialist Carter Clary will work with specialists from Wawona Frozen Foods of Clovis, California in an effort to improve freeze processing of peaches. Their work will focus on ways to more quickly freeze 40-pound cartons of peaches following heat processing.

Center for Irrigation Technology

What to do with wastewater treatment plant sludge? Plant science professor Sharon Benes will track the growth and fruit production of apricot trees fertilized with "biosolids," which are the solid materials left over after raw sewage is treated at wastewater treatment plants. Biosolids contain desirable fertilizer elements such as nitrogen and organic materials, but they also can contain pathogenic organisms and chemical pollutants, which in high amounts could prove harmful to trees and/or soil.

Benes also will continue her study of drainage water reuse on the San Joaquin Valley's West Side. Her work will focus on growth of salt-tolerant plants irrigated with water up to two-thirds the salt content of sea water.

CIT staff will team up to oversee tests of an automated subsurface drip irrigation system. Irrigations will be based on a combination of soil moisture sensing and water evaporation rate from open pans in the vineyard.

Viticulture and Enology Research Center

Viticulture research scientist Sanliang Gu will conduct studies to determine if a new method of vineyard irrigation called partial rootzone drying (PRD) will enhance grape production and wine quality. One test will feature use of two above-ground drip lines for each row of grapevines – with one drip line on each side of the vine. Irrigation scheduling will include alternating drip line operation. Another study will feature a similar approach using subsurface drip lines. The process has promise for reducing vine water use, controlling vine vigor and canopy density while maintaining crop yields.

In another viticulture study, Gu will apply different production methods to Chardonnay grapevines in an experimental plot in the San Joaquin Valley. He will attempt to measure wine chemistry and quality in relation to mechanical pruning on three Chardonnay clones grafted onto three different rootstocks.

At the molecular level of grape study, biology professor James Prince will investigate a new DNA fingerprinting system that could bring more certainty to the practice of cultivar identification. The system will focus on ribosomal RNA genes, for the production of "fingerprints" at the cultivar level.

Plant science professor Mark Mayse will continue integrated pest management (IPM) studies in three areas: 1) comparing the strengths and limitations of organic and conventional winegrape production systems; 2) exploring the ecological roles of parasitic wasps in cover-cropped vineyards; and 3) investigating non-chemical tactics for managing Erythroneura leafhopper pests such as western grape leafhopper and variegated leafhopper.

The process of winemaking will be the focus of continued study for associate enology professor Ken Fugelsang. In a follow-up to prior work, Fugelsang will examine the growth rates of 10 strains of Brettanomyces intermedius yeast in Pinot Nior wine in an effort to determine the organism’s ability to enhance wine flavor, aroma and complexity.

In a special World Wide Web project, CATI’s Advanced Technology Information Network (Ati-Net) will develop, build and evaluate a new type of Internet search engine – one that will search specifically in California for ag-related information. There are currently no known search engines that offer that service to agricultural interests in or outside of California.

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