Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Partnership practices are welcomed if they entail selling products of
equal value, but if the set of practices increases the amount of services
and skills expected and reduces the potential for sales, it is less appeal-
ing. This industry manifests many traits of a quasi-profession or a
“profession in process.”
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Economic models of pest-management decisions that do not fully
incorporate risk are inaccurate. Because of the biological uncertainty in
an agricultural system, growers and PCAs never obtain all the informa-
tion they would like, either across the farming system at the time of the
decision, or predicting the future. Different pests pose different problems
in uncertainty. Some pests, such as fungal diseases in almonds, have to
be treated prophylactically, because once a fungal disease begins, fungi-
cides cannot arrest it, only weather conditions. One former Farm
Advisor turned grower described hoping to save $30/acre in fungicides,
but he guessed wrong, and lost thousands of dollars of almond crop per
acre that year and the next due to damaged bud wood. This illustrates
the economic rationality of growers' reluctance to forgo fungicides.
Two factors emerge as antidotes to uncertainty and risk. The first is
trust: growers who have established relationships with PCAs feel confi-
dent that their PCA is going to take care of them. It appears this sense of
confidence helps growers manage their anxieties about the risks of farm-
ing. The second factor is knowledge, which agroecological partnerships
promote through increased monitoring and knowledge of the farming
system. Partnerships explicitly try to intervene in the farm-management
decision-making process by making it more ecologically rational. PCAs
have substantial influence over this process, and have been a secondary
audience for most partnerships.
Partnership leaders report mixed success working with PCAs. They
extol formally enrolled PCAs for their critical contributions toward mak-
ing the techniques effective, but report that most affiliated PCAs express
skepticism or passively resist pesticide reduction goals. Partnership lead-
ers report being aware of the importance of PCAs to grower decision
making, but many express concern that they do not fully understand
how they influence growers. Only five partnerships designed their
projects to enroll PCAs with their growers, and surprisingly few have
conducted dedicated outreach to PCAs. Twenty-nine partnerships
enrolled a total of 84 PCAs as formal partners, meaning that PCAs
