Data Dig: California Farmers Working Hard To Protect Their Assets

By Bob West|October 24, 2024

Replenished irrigation resources and favorable weather helped California’s farming industry start strong in 2024 with growers reporting a 25% increase in treated acres of crop protection products to specialty crops through the first quarter. But the strong early-season vibes have faded throughout the year as the market continues grappling with the double whammy of high input costs and lagging commodity pricing, particularly in the critical almond market.

Treated acreage data from pesticide use reports collected by Meister Media’s PUREIntel™ platform show that the year-over-year increase in application activity has dropped to just 2% over last year for applications made January through September 2024.

After the strongest first quarter since 2020, application activity slowed in the second quarter to only slightly exceed application volume from Q2 2023, and 2024 volume is falling well short of the surprisingly strong application volume reported in the third quarter of 2023 when growers completed much of the ‘catch up’ work created by a delayed start to the season last year.

The increase in crop protection activity in 2024 can be largely attributed to tree nuts, which shows 5% growth thus far this year, along with cotton, which has seen increased planted acreage this year thanks to the improved water availability. However, treated acreage is flat to down slightly for most of the key crop groups in the state as growers work to maximize profitability.

All told, the state’s farms have reported 80.6 million treated acres of crop protection products in the first nine months of the year vs. 79.2 million treated acres at the same junction of 2023.