Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
participated as applied consultants to the project, or were identified as
partners. They have played critical roles in some partnerships, in terms
of both the applied science and overall group leadership, although most
of the time they prefer to operate in the background of partnerships.
Established PCAs engage in partnership activity because it offers them
the opportunity to sharpen their skills and develop professionally.
Enrolled PCAs have different skills and express their participation dif-
ferently than do growers. Enrolled PCAs contributed less to almost every
partnership activity than leading growers did, but their participation was
nevertheless essential to partnerships' success because of their expert
knowledge. Partnership leaders reported that PCAs were more important
than growers in defining the problem that stimulated the creation of the
partnership. Growers identified the problems and proposed a collabora-
tive solution in more partnerships, but PCAs brought their regional
perspective on pest management and farm management.
Partnerships promote agroecological strategies and practices among
PCAs who are not formally enrolled. Many partnership leaders report
encountering difficulties or challenges in trying to persuade PCAs to pro-
vide more sophisticated monitoring. Partnerships promote monitoring
population trends for both pests and beneficial insects, recommending
treatment only when damage is projected to be greater than the cost of
pesticides plus their application costs plus the anticipated expense of
additional pesticides required when the initial spray disrupts the existing
biocontrol. Many of the partnerships have tried to help growers become
better consumers of PCA services, such as by asking questions about
thresholds, asking for written reports on monitoring, or asking about
non-toxic, cultural controls.
Farm Advisors as Intermediaries
Farm Advisors formerly were a singular authority of applied scientific
knowledge, serving a strong gatekeeper role. Private industry scientists
and PCAs have expanded their own knowledge capacity to the point that
UCCE prestige is relatively diminished. Farm Advisors still hold a privi-
leged position by virtue of their historically tight relationships with
University of California researchers, but private industry now accesses
that knowledge and conducts its private research with relative ease.
