MANY CROPS DESTROYED $24 MILLION IN LOSSES.Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer Ventura County farmers suffered at least $24 million in crop and equipment losses to rain and mud in a preliminary estimate reached Tuesday. Experts branded the series of storms, which dumped more than eight inches of rain onto farms in just three days, the worst since 1998. The deluge ripped out irrigation irrigation, in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. systems, littered orchards with debris and turned once verdant ver·dant adj. 1. Green with vegetation; covered with green growth. 2. Green. 3. Lacking experience or sophistication; naive. fields into mud-choked bogs. Losses to the prized strawberry crops alone could run $5 million, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner estimates. Citrus, celery, avocados, nursery stock and broccoli all took a multimillion-dollar beating. Commissioner Earl McPhail asked the Ventura County Board of Supervisors The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. The Board of Supervisors is the body governing counties in the U.S. on Tuesday to declare the area a disaster, allowing additional state and federal dollars to rebuild damaged groves and fields. ``Most everyone got hit in one way or another,'' said Randy Axell, a Santa Paula Santa Paula (săn`tə pôl`ə), city (1990 pop. 25,062), Ventura co., S Calif., on the Santa Clara River in a fertile valley that yields citrus fruits, avocados, vegetables, flowers, nursery products, and walnuts; laid out 1875, inc. farmer who's recorded 30 inches of rain since October on his 40 acres. ``I've got to get back into my orchard to apply copper to the fruit or brown rot brown rot n. Any of several plant diseases, especially a disease of peach, plum, apricot, cherry, and related plants, characterized by wilting and browning of the flowers and leaves and rotting of the fruits. will set in. That's my big concern, otherwise I'm not going to have a crop. The warm weather's wonderful to dry out fruit, but then it's real good for growing mold, so you win and lose at the same time.'' If farmers don't protect their fruit with the copper-based fungicide fungicide (fŭn`jəsīd', fŭng`gə–), any substance used to destroy fungi. Some fungi are extremely damaging to crops (see diseases of plants), and others cause diseases in humans and other animals (see fungal infection). within 10 days, experts predict a quick end to the first good harvest in four years. Last January brought 95-degree temperatures, leading Ben Faber, farm adviser for the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). Cooperative Extension, to fear old trees could lose leaves and young trees could die. Though a quick assessment put the damage at more than $24 million, the Agricultural Commission said things could get worse as farmers survey their waterlogged wa·ter·logged adj. 1. Nautical Heavy and sluggish in the water because of flooding, as in the hold: a waterlogged ship. 2. land. ``There's so many things involved, we won't have a good handle on it for a couple weeks,'' said David Buettner, the county's chief deputy agriculture commissioner. ``Some of the growers have got to redo To reverse an undo operation. See undo. irrigation and get all the mud and dirt out of their trees. If they've got standing water in the trees, they've got to get that out of there.'' Such was the case across Craig Underwood's 900 acres throughout Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. and Somis. His citrus and avocado trees might be OK, but he couldn't even get in to fully assess the damage there and to his ground crops. ``We're looking at a piece of property right now that's basically a creek,'' he said. ``We can't even get to the groves because the roads are closed.'' Though few welcomed the rain, the timing proved to be a small blessing for Mike Conroy. Water damage killed off 90 percent of his strawberry crop, but the Camarillo-based grower said the financial damage would be minimal because it was so early in the season. ``Our harvest just started, but the good news is we needed that rain,'' he said. ``The water quality's going to be a lot better when we need it later. We're throwing away some fruit right now, but if there's going to be a storm, this is the time to have it. If we get a half-inch of rain in April, it would actually be much, much worse.'' Brent Hopkins, (818) 713-3738 brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 3 photos, box Photo: (1 -- color) Field workers pick what's left of broccoli in a soggy field along Los Angeles Avenue in Somis. Recent rains left many crops in the area damaged or destroyed, with losses so far totaling some $24 million. (2 -- color) There's not much left of stalks of mud-covered broccoli growing in Somis. Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer (3 -- color) no caption (oranges) Box: POPPED CROPS SOURCE: Ventura County Agricultural Commission Daily News |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion