jul-aug-2020

IN YOUR ORCHARD THE ALMOND BOARD Almond Board’s Bee+ Scholarship for Almond Growers Promotes Bee Friendly Farming This June, the Almond Board of California (ABC), along with the organization Pollinator Partnership, announced the alignment of ABC’s California Almond Sustainability Program (CASP)¹ and Pollinator Partnership’s Bee Friendly Farming (BFF) program. This alignment promotes the importance of providing pollinators with nutritional forage. To further support almond growers in their efforts to plant pollinator habitat, the Almond Board simultaneously launched its Bee+ Scholarship, through which it will provide free cover crop seed to 100 almond growers through Project Apis m.’s Seeds for Bees program. The scholarship will also cover the cost for growers to register for the BFF program. “Protecting and improving honey bee health, not only during the short time that bees are in our orchards but year round, is critical to the success of every almond grower. By working with national organizations such as Pollinator Partnership and Project Apis m., we are expanding our focus to all pollinators, viewing working lands as part of biodiverse ecosystems,” said Almond Board Chief Scientific Officer Josette Lewis, Ph.D. “Responsible farming is at the heart of what the California almond community does. ABC’s Bee+ Scholarship and the alignment between CASP and BFF allow us to increase our support to growers as they remain committed to growing almonds in better, safer and healthier ways, adding biodiversity to their farms, and improving outcomes for pollinators.” The CASP and BFF program alignment and Bee+ Scholarship expand on a commitment made in the Almond Board’s Pollinator Protection Plan,² announced in January, to promote pollinator health and biodiversity by encouraging almond growers to provide habitat for pollinators in or near their orchards. Funding provided by ABC’s Bee+ Scholarship will allow growers to plant an estimated 3,500 acres of quality pollinator forage statewide — that’s in addition to the cover crop seed Project Apis m. typically distributes directly to almond growers through their Seeds for Bees program each year.³ Currently, over half of almond growers participating in ABC’s California Almond Sustainability Program report allowing native cover crops to grow in their orchards. 4 This scholarship will help to convert more of those native cover crops to quality pollinator forage. Protecting and improving honey bee health, not only during the short time that bees are in our orchards but year round, is critical to the success of every almond grower. ¹ Launched in 2009, CASP is a nine-part self-assessment that helps almond growers compare current practices against industry standards and identify areas of improvement across their operations. Visit SustainableAlmondGrowing.org for more information. ² Learn more about the plan at www.almonds.com/why-almonds/almond-living-magazine/california-almond-community-announces-five-point-pollinator 4 0 A L M O N D F A C T S