California agriculture in 2021: Challenges and opportunities

In recent years, California growers have been up against water policies, regulations, labor shortages, tariffs, and climate change. While these challenges threaten farm productivity and the bottom line, the agriculture industry is looking to advancements in technology to upgrade farm management and ensure a sustainable future.

In the deep end of water restrictions

In California, locally produced tree crops that require year-round watering, like almonds, have been knocked by the combination of water shortages and restrictions. The longstanding drought has slowed water deliveries and made water transfers complicated and expensive. To add to this, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act passed in 2015 changed the way that groundwater is managed with new restrictions on pumping.

In a time when growers cannot afford to waste water, we offer insights into irrigation so that early-stage corrections can be made to monitor plant stress and ensure irrigation uniformity. 

Areas of concern can be marked on the Aeroview web app to form an investigation route and using the Aeroview InField mobile app, you can follow the route and share reports from the ground. After interventions have been carried out to correct problems, growers can look at their insights on Aeroview to assess the impact.

Working smarter to combat shortages

The cost of labor and access to labor is a known challenge in agriculture. A 2019 study by the California Bureau Federation found that 56% of the growers who participated had been unable to hire all the employees they needed for the production of their main crops at some point during the last 5 years. This is in spite of increased wages in recent years.

To optimize their teams’ time, growers have embraced new agricultural technologies that improve efficiency. With a farm management system like Aeroview, growers can hone in on the most labor-intensive areas of an orchard and assign tasks to their internal and external teams. 

To combat production challenges in California, precision farming technology is empowering growers to effectively manage teams and protect yields.

Request a demo to see how our insights can benefit your operations.